


Stark in the Name

by The_Father



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Asgard, Black Panther - Freeform, Black Widow - Freeform, Captain America - Freeform, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Spoilers, Civil War Team Iron Man, Earth, F/M, Game Grumps - Freeform, Hawkeye - Freeform, Hydra (Marvel), Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems, Infinity War, Iron Man - Freeform, Iron Man 1, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3 Spoilers, Loki - Freeform, Marvel Universe, Odin - Freeform, Original Character(s), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Iron Man 2, Post-Iron Man 3, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Iron Man 1, Spider-Man - Freeform, Thor - Freeform, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark has a daughter, ant-man - Freeform, mcu - Freeform, ninja sex party, the wasp - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-04-06 09:56:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 36
Words: 72,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14054394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Father/pseuds/The_Father
Summary: The MCU only with an added twist: Tony Stark finds out he has a newborn daughter and takes her in. Involving her in the adventures of the MCU.





	1. Meeting a Piece of you

_ June 6, 2000 _

There were only three things that Tony Stark cared about: keeping up his Playboy figure, weapon designs, and having a fling almost every night. He barely had any time to himself, hell, if he didn’t have Obie to help cover some of his business trips once in a while then he would never have time to just relax. It was a fact that Tony was a busy man, but he wouldn’t want to have it any other way. There was just something about the fame and riches that made it all worthwhile. There wasn’t anything that he would personally change about his life. 

That, however, doesn’t mean that the universe was going to stick with his plan. 

Tony was currently downstairs in his garage with music blaring over his speakers that were hooked up on the walls so he could hear it clearly wherever he went. He was under the hood of an old, vintage car replacing its battery while  _ No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn  _ by the Beastie Boys were echoing throughout the room when his home phone started to ring. Of course, he couldn’t even hear it. 

“ _ Mister, Stark?”  _ Tony’s AI butler, JARVIS, called over the music so Tony would hear him. 

Tony got out from under the hood, taking the wrench out of his mouth. “Yeah?”

“ _ I do believe your phone is ringing, sir.” _

Tony picked up the small, black remote that controlled the speaker system, pressing the mute button. He could hear the phone now, but he had to push things off of his very messy, scattered desk to be able to find the wireless home phone. Once he found it, the first thing he did was look at the caller ID and the phone number to see who it was. Huh… the caller ID said that it was an Unknown number and caller, so naturally, he was a little wary of answering it.

Eh, what’s the worst that could happen?

“Yeah?” Was all that Tony said into the phone, reaching over to grab his drink off the desk. 

“May I speak to Tony Stark, please?” A woman on the other end of the line asked him. 

“Speaking.”

“My name is Sara from Child Protective Services.” Tony’s heart dropped, he knew that he was going to get a call like this sooner or later. “Mister Stark, are you there?”

Tony shook his head slightly, pulling himself out of his slight anxiety. “Yeah, yeah I’m here.”

“Mister Stark, do you know a woman by the name of Samantha James?” 

Tony thought about it for a moment. Did he know anyone named Samantha James? It sounded kinda familiar, but he couldn’t exactly place a face to the name. “Not that I can recall,” he answered truthly. 

“Well, Mister Stark, Samantha James was carrying your child. She was brought from the county prison to the Malibu Hospital around… ten hours ago? To deliver the child.”

“...alright…”

“ _ High blood pressure detected, sir,”  _ JARVIS told Tony.

“Ms. James is still in jail due to her cocaine possession charge and because of that she automatically lost all parental rights. You’re the only other person in line who has an parental rights.”

“...okay…”

“Mister Stark, you have two choices here,” Sara said, sounding more serious than before, “you can either take full custody of your child or the child can be placed into foster care. The choice is yours.”

“Hold on…” Tony muted the phone call, throwing the wireless phone back onto the desk, covering his face with his hands as he let out a long, loud sigh. “What do I do, JARVIS?” He asked his AI pal, looking up at the ceiling. 

_ “I would suggest you take the child in, sir. Not only can you assure the proper care for them, but having another Stark living up to your name may be something you want to consider.” _

Tony thought about what JARVIS just said. It was true, if there was any other Stark out there that was his he wanted to keep an eye on them. Besides, if the child turned out to be as smart as he was then it could be fun to build things with someone else. 

“Good point.” Tony picked up the phone, unmutting it. “Alright, I made my choice. I’ll take them in.”

“A good choice, Mister Stark. Just come by the hospital and go up to the maternity ward.”

“Alright… uhuh… thanks. Bye.” He hung up, throwing it right back on the desk where it belongs. He wasn’t mentally prepared himself for this, a child? Him? Have a child? Was that some kinda joke?

_ “You better get going, Mister Stark.”  _

Tony didn’t say anything, hell, what could he even say? Internally, he was freaking out. He hasn’t been a parent ever before, he doesn’t know the first thing about babies, and three, he wasn’t exactly brung up by the best father in the world. So his view on being a good parent was a little skewed. 

On the way out the door, Tony grabbed his cell-phone, calling Happy about what was going on. 

“Hello?” Happy said into the phone, sounding groggy from just clearly waking up. 

“Wakey wakey, I have some news for you,” Tony told him as he closed the car door, and started up the car. All Happy did was grunt on the other end of the line. “Glad to hear that enthusiasm, but this is serious. I just got a call from- doesn’t matter. I just got a call and… well, turns out I have a child that was literally just born-”

“What?!” Happy interrupted, loud enough for Tony to move the phone away from his ear. “A child?! Is it a boy or a girl?”

Tony paused, trying to recall if Sara told him what the gender of the child was. “Y’know, I’m not sure. They didn’t tell me.”

“I’m gonna be called Uncle Happy.”

“Call yourself whatever you want, I need you to pick up a baby car seat for our cars.”

“You got it, boss. I’ll meet you up at the hospital?”

“Sounds good.” They both hung up the phones, then Tony drove himself to the hospital.

* * *

 The drive was a slow one but it was also way too quick, it was most likely the anxiety that was building up in his chest. Like a small ball that was slowly growing in size in his chest. Tony parked in the parking ramp, staring at the hospital building, deciding if this was going to be a good idea or not. Of course it was a good idea, it was his child after all. There was no way he was going to let his own flesh and blood be separated from him. Tony let out one final sigh before he forced himself out of his car and walked inside the hospital.

Since he had never actually been inside the hospital ever before, he had to ask the woman at the front desk where the maternity ward was located; the seventh floor. There was one thing that Tony hated more than anything, and that was germs. The hospital equals  _ a lot _ of germs, sickness and diseases. This was the worse place that he could be in. When getting into the elevator, he used his knuckle to press the button, keeping the germs away from his palm at least. The anxiety was bad, but having the elevator stop at almost every floor to pick up other people made it worse. He didn’t know who was sick, what the doctors had on their scrubs, and it was just disgusting, so he pressed himself into the corner as much as he could so at least try to avoid it. 

Tony stepped out of the elevator when it landed on the seventh floor like he was told to go to.The first thing he did, the very first thing he did was put his hand underneath the automatic sanitizer that was on every single wall to get rid of the germs that the elevator buttons carried.

“Hello, sir, can I help you?” A young lady at the front desk of the maternity ward asked him, looking up from her computer. 

“I’m… meeting Sara? She’s with CPS.” 

Before the woman could answer him, another woman (who was clearly Sara) walked up to him, her heels clicking on the tile floor behind him. “Mister Stark?” She asked him, holding out her hand. 

“Yeah, that’s me,” he answered, shaking her hand. 

“Come with me.” 

Tony didn’t question her, instead he just followed behind her. Why wasn’t she saying anything? Was there something else going on here? Why was he so nervous? Whatever, everything will work out, everything will always work out. 

Sara led them to a large window in the middle of the hallway that displayed a bunch of babies that were laying in hospital bassinets, most of them were sleeping while some of them were starting to cry and whine. She pointed to a child that had their eyes closed, their hand bundled in a fist and clearly starting to get fussy. 

“There she is,” Sara told him. 

“...huh…” Tony muttered under his breath. It was odd seeing a tiny human laying there, knowing that it was his. He swore up and down that he had never seen babies so small before, so this was a weird, new experience for him. 

A nurse walked up to them, knowing the situation. “Come this way, Mister Stark,” she told him, her arm outstretched to an empty hospital room. 

Normally Tony would be cracking jokes, being more talkative, but this time he just couldn’t. Even though he has been in more serious situations, this was different. This would change his entire life. He would be in charge and take care of a tiny version on him. The nurse urged him to lay in the nicely clean hospital bed while she would get his child ready to bring to him. Tony agreed, taking off his shoes and getting into the bed like he was advised. 

While waiting, Tony pulled out his cell-phone, giving his father figure, Obadiah Stane. Since he already told Happy he had to tell Obie what was going on. The phone rang over and over, Tony was tapping his fingers rapidly, hoping that he would eventually pick up. Nope. Voice mail. 

“Obie, seventh floor at the hospital. Meet me there ASAP.” He ended the call just as the nurse came into the room, rolling a hospital bassinet in front of her. Next to the child’s arm there was a bottle filled with milk. 

“Here she is,” the nurse said happily, parking the bassinet next to Tony’s bed. 

“I’m gonna be totally honest with you,” Tony started to say, “I don’t have the first clue as to take care of a child.”

First, the nurse looked concerned, then she broke into a smile. “You know how many times fathers tell me that a day? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you know the basics before you take her home.” She reached down, picking up the child by sliding one arm under her neck and the other hand under the hips. When standing up straight, the nurse slid the hand from behind the neck down to the child's back so her head was resting in the crook of her arm. “And that’s how you pick up your baby,” she explained, holding her out to Tony who tried to copy the same thing that she did. Successfully. 

The nurse handed over the warm bottle of baby formula to Tony, who fed it to the girl with one hand while supporting her with his other arm. The nurse readjusted Tony’s arm so it was propping the infant up so she could drink the formula safely.  
“Huh… this isn’t so hard,” Tony commented, watching his child chug down the formula. 

“That’s what all new fathers say,” the nurse said with a smile on her face. “They usually break with diaper changing.” 

“Well. That’s nice to know.” Tony removed the bottle from the child’s mouth once it was empty. Not long after, she started to get fussy and Tony had no idea what to do now. Before Tony could ask, the nurse tapped Tony’s back so he would sit up. 

“You should try to burp her after every feeding since she still will swallow air. It makes them fussy if you don’t. You pick her up like this.” She helped transition the baby to lean up so her chin was on Tony’s shoulder. “Let me get you a towel.” She went into the bathroom and quickly came back out. She wrapped it around Tony’s left shoulder so if she spit up it wouldn’t get it on his shirt. “Just gently pat her back and bounce her a little bit to help her out.” He did exactly what he was told to do, at first nothing happened, but thankfully there was a towel as when the girl burped she spit up a bit. 

“And that’s normal?” Tony asked, place the baby back in the position he had her in before removing the dirty towel from his back.

“Yup. And just because it’s been awhile, let me show you have to change her diaper and clothes.” 

It took about thirty-minutes in total for Tony to properly learn how to change diapers and change clothes. It was starting to frustrate him on how much the girl wiggled around, but when the nurse told him it would get harder when she got older, he buckled down and changed her as quick as he could. The nurse congratulated him, saying that it took most new fathers a lot longer than that to learn how to do most of these things. Tony had to admit, it felt good to know how to take care of his newborn daughter. 

Tony laid back in the bed with his daughter curled up to his chest, letting out a couple of small yawns before closing her eyes. 

“Did you think of any names? We still have to fill out the rest of the birth certificate,” the nurse asked him, leaning against the wall with a pen and paper ready. 

Tony looked down at his daughter. He knew exactly what he wanted to call her. “Amanda Maria Stark,” he answered. The nurse wrote it down quickly before showing it to Tony to confirm that the name was spelt correctly. When it was, she left the room to finish the birth certificate. 

He closed his own eyes, leaning his head back on the head rest to rest his eyes as it’s been a long day for him. That only lasted a few minutes before the hospital room suddenly opened, causing Tony to jump and waking up Amanda. It was Happy, and he was carrying a car seat. He was all out of breath as if he literally ran into the hospital and up seven flights of stairs. 

“What is the matter with you?” Tony said in a serious tone, staring at his bodyguard. 

“I’m excited,” was all Happy said, dropping the car seat to the floor and sitting in the chair next to Tony’s bed.

The nurse walked back into the room holding a newly printed birth certificate. She raised an eyebrow when she saw Happy. “Is this, uh… the person you’re going to be taking care of Amanda with?” She asked Tony. 

She thought he was dating Happy? That was priceless.

“Oh, no no no, that’s not how it is-”

“Honey, you don’t have to be embarrassed,” Tony told Happy jokingly with a huge smile on his face. Happy glared at him, slowly shaking his head. 

“This is for you,” the nurse told Tony, placing the birth certificate on the small night stand next to his bed. “And the doctor wanted me to tell you that Amanda will have to stay here at the hospital for another 48 hours to make sure that she’s healthy enough to leave.” 

“Fair enough.”

“If you guys need anything else, feel free to press the nurse button.” She turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door opened. 

“Gimmie,” was all Happy said, leaning over to pick up his new niece. Amanda stared up at Happy with wide eyes, looking extremely confused. “Hi, sweetie, I’m your Uncle Happy,” he told her in a small voice. Tony couldn’t help himself, he pulled out his cell-phone and took a couple of pictures of Happy snuggling his daughter. “Delete that,” Happy told Tony in a serious tone.

“No way, they’re adorable. I’m keeping them.”

“At least let me get a picture of you and her together.” 

Tony shrugged and traded the cell-phone for Amanda. Happy snapped the picture, making sure they were clear and perfect before putting it on the nightstand on top of the birth certificate. 

There was a small knock on the door, standing there was Obie with a smile on his face. He walked in, hands in his pocket as he looked at Tony and the newborn child. 

“Wow, Tony. I had no idea you were pregnant,” Obie said jokingly. 

“Yeah, I didn’t want to tell too many people,” Tony replied sarcastically. 

Obie noticed the birth certificate and picked it up to read the name. “‘Amanda Maria Stark,’” He read aloud. “I like her middle name.”

“I do too.”

“Well, now we have to get a picture of Obie holding her,” Happy added, picking the phone back up.

Obie gently took Amanda from Tony’s arms, who, once again, looked extremely confused at all the new faces she’s seen in such a short period of time. 

He smiled at her. “You’re gonna look just like your father,” he told her, his smile growing. Happy snapped a picture or two, making sure they were perfect. 

Yeah, it seems like Amanda was already pretty popular. 


	2. An Unfortunate Circumstance

As much as Tony wanted to take his newborn daughter home, he knew that he couldn’t since the doctors and nurses had to monitor her health for another 48 hours. Was that a normal thing that did they? Or was there something wrong with her? Tony couldn’t help but have these intrusive thoughts, he could literally  _ feel _ the parental instinct wash over him. That’s when he realized that there was no reason that she would be able to come home yet since he didn’t have any baby supplies or anything of the sort at home, so it was best that she was still at the hospital where she had the right care. Not only that, but Sara still had to come over to inspect the house to make sure it was a safe environment. Yeah, Tony had to go to the Child Depot. 

Normally, Tony was the kinda guy to just jump into a store and dump whatever looks useful into the cart and move on, but this time he actually had to sit down and make a list, and do some research before heading out. He had probably searched and searched over a hundred websites on what to get newborn babies. A lot. The answer is: a lot. This kid was most likely going to put a dent in his wallet. 

Just kidding. 

Taking his list with him, Tony headed out in the truck that he rented and went to the Child Depot. 

* * *

When was the last time that Tony stepped into a real life store? He normally had people do it for him, but at a time like this, he wanted to do it himself just to make sure that everything they needed was collected. It was strange for him to be in a store like this, surrounded by child supplies. Tony was so sure that nothing like this was going to happen to him ever. He always used every kinda protection to prevent a situation like this, but what happened happened and he was prepared to take care of it.

From Tony’s list, he wasn’t so sure what supplies that he needed now and what was needed later for when Amanda was older. Whatever. He’ll get everything that’s on his list. Best to have it now than to not have it when you need it. 

Tony grabbed a cart that was right next to the sliding door of the store and started to march his way through the store with the list in hand. This was going to be an interesting experience. 

The first aisle that he passed was the bottle aisle, since Tony had no idea how many he would need he just kinda dumped twenty four-ounce bottles into the carts basket. One thing down and almost a million more to go. 

The most complicated part of the shopping trip was clearly going to be the clothes shopping. Tony had no eye for children fashion or even what size or amount that Amanda needed to wear. This entire trip was basically an expensive guessing game. Upon entering the clothing area of the store, there were a lot of pregnant women standing around looking at clothing and a handful of husbands who weren’t too interested on what clothes their baby had. 

Tony parked the cart next to him, sticking his hands into a random rack of clothing and pulled out whatever he could find. Some clothes he pulled out either looked way too small or way too big. He had no idea what he was doing and it would be nice if he had some insight. No, no, he was a literal genius, so he could figure this out on his own. The sizes on the tags either said NB/0, 3/0-3, 6/3-6, etc. Tony let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead as he was trying to figure out what all this coding meant. NB… that could stand for… newborn? And zero could stand for the month the child is? Well, yeah, that made enough sense. 

Lets see… Tony ended up with around seven one-piece pajamas, about six shirts with various sayings on them that Tony found amusing, one black and red jacket, seven pants/shorts, four of something that’s called wearable blankets (didn’t know if it was truly necessary, but Tony thought that that was awesome and wish he could have wearable blankets), and, like, a million socks (twenty pairs). 

Now, for the reason that he had to rent the truck… all the furniture he had to buy that would be necessary for when Amanda moves in. He picked up a crib, a crib mattress, plastic infant tub for the bathtub, a stroller, a highchair (most likely for when she was older), a changing table, a rocking recliner chair, and a playpen. Thankfully, all he had to do was pick up slips for the items and he would pick them up once he went to the check out. There weren’t any carts in the world that would be large enough to fit all those items at once. 

Only a “few” more things that Tony needed to pick up. Diapers that fit newborns only, swaddle blankets, burp cloths, three pacifiers, a changing pad, baby ointment, wipes, a baby monitor, some bottle brushes, a couple of packages of formulas, thermal bottle carrier, soft washcloths, baby soap, soft hair brush, waterproof mattress covers, dinosaur crib sheets, light blankets for the crib, nail clippers, a bulb syringe, eye dropper, medicine spoons, a baby thermometer, baby pain reliever, moisturizing cream, teething toys, teething pain gel, a sunshade for the car, rattles, two diaper bags, a night light, a play gym, and baby locks. Yeah, just a little bit of stuff. Nothing too major. 

With all these items and the furniture, the grand total was over two-thousand dollars. Babies were expensive. Tony couldn’t believe how much they charged for anything with a baby smacked onto the box. Tony dumped all the items in the cart onto the conveyor belt at the check out, handing the slips for the furniture to the cashier who smiled. 

“Expecting?” The young lady asked him. 

“Unexpected.”

The young lady’s smile turned into a surprised look. She never heard an answer like that before since  _ most  _ men who came in here knew that they had a child on the way.  

“Unexpected, but happy about it,” Tony added quickly to hopefully bring her mood back up. 

“Well, I hope you found everything you were looking for,” she replied before paging the backroom to bring up the furniture. 

Tony paid for everything and loaded all the things that could fit into his cart into the rental truck before pulling said truck up next to the store so they could load the furniture into it more easier. Something was rattling the back of Tony’s mind. Did he forget something?  He got the crib… diapers… mattress…. Bottles… formula… was he forgetting anything? No. Surprisingly not. 

* * *

“How hard could this be?” Tony asked when he got home, standing in the empty room that would soon become his daughters. “How hard could it-” He was about to ask himself again as he opened the box that held the crib inside, but as soon as he did the whole thing fell out in scattered pieces. “-be…”

Tony sat down on the floor, pushing the headboards, sides, and the mattress support out of the way to look for the instruction booklet, but it was nowhere to be found. Did it seriously not come with one? Well, this was starting off well. Psh, he was genius, he could figure this out with no problem whatsoever. He grabbed the small plastic baggie that contained all the bolts and the allen wrench, pouring them out on the floor next to him. He could rebuild cars and create weapons, he could build this up. 

* * *

After the nursery was finished, Sara from CPS showed up to Tony’s house. Normally Tony would refuse to have anyone over, but since this was kinda serious he dealt with it. It was Sara’s job today was to go through Tony’s house to make sure that it was going to be a safe environment for Amanda. That was fair enough, but that was the exact reason why Tony didn’t really want to have her over, he didn’t like people going through his stuff. Sara was extremely impressed of how quickly Tony was able to put the nursery together and how good it turned out.

“Mister Stark?” Sara grabbed Tony’s attention, who stayed in the living room to watch TV so he would stay out of her way. Tony turned off the TV, getting up off the couch. “I’ve been through most of the house and from what I’ve seen it is perfectly safe for your daughter.” 

Tony smiled. “Great! I’m really excited for her to come home.”

“It’s good to hear that you’re taking care of this situation. Here’s my card and if you have any questions give me a call.”

“Could-could you set that on the table, I have a thing. I don’t like be handed things.” 

Sara dropped the card on the table before showing herself out. 

* * *

To celebrate the fact that he was officially going to have his daughter come to live with him, Tony ordered a pizza and was kicking back to relax while watching TV in the living room. He felt more sore putting the nursery together than he ever did rebuilding cars. He lost count of how many times he pinched his fingers today, but his hands had a throbbing pain in remembrance.

As he was taking a sip of his soda his phone started to ring. “Hello?” He answered, putting his cup back down on the coffee table in front of him. 

“Mister Stark?” A female voice on the other end of the line asked.

“Speaking.”

“Hi, I’m a nurse up at the hospital, I’ve been taking care of your daughter during the night shift.” Something about this call didn’t settle right with Tony, he had a strong feeling that something was wrong. 

“What’s wrong?” Was all Tony could ask. 

“Well, I’ve noticed when I started my shift that Amanda’s temperature was low, her skin was slightly yellowing and her hands were getting puffy. I gave her a blood test to see if there was anything abnormal…”

“And?”

“Mister Stark, she’s in a stage five kidney failure.” 

“Stage f- What does that mean?” 

“Stage five kidney failure basically means that the kidneys that she has will never function properly.”

Called it. Tony knew that something was wrong with this phone call, but that didn’t change the fact that his heart was racing and it felt like there was a ball in his chest that was tightening itself up. “What can we do about that?” He tried to ask in the calmest voice he could muster. 

“Well, there isn’t much that  _ we  _ can do. She’ll have to do dialysis three times a week to remove the toxins out of her body that her kidneys can’t take care of themselves. We’ve put her on a kidney transplant list, but I have to inform you that the list is extremely long and will take a long time before she can get a transplant that way.”

“And she’ll be okay with just that?”

“The doctor confirmed that as long as Amanda gets the dialysis treatments three times a week she will be just fine. Of course, our goal isn’t to just have her on dialysis for the rest of her life, that’s why we put her on the kidney transplant list.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Thanks for letting me know…. Okay… bye.” Tony hung up the phone and just kinda stared at it, trying to gather his thoughts together on what was just said to him. 

It was hard for Tony to take in the fact that his daughter had a medical condition that was out of his power to fix permanently. He looked down at his hands, he didn’t realize that he had been shaking the whole time. Deep breaths, he had to keep telling himself. Take deep breaths. The doctor said that she would be fine as long as she gets the dialysis treatments, it’s going to be okay. Suddenly, his eyes started to burn a little, he reached up and felt tears in the corner of his right eye.


	3. Twenty-Four Hours

It was hard to fall asleep that night, Tony couldn’t help but toss and turn the majority of the time. He kept thinking of Amanda, her newly discovered medical condition and how that was going to affect her in the future. He was worried that he won’t be able to take care of her due to kidney failure and that she would get taken away from him. Even though he hasn’t known Manda long, hell, she was literally only a few days old, he felt a strong bond with his daughter. Clearly, that was a parental bond he had, but it made him feel a warmth in his heart that he’s never felt before. 

Tony must’ve gotten maybe… four or five hours of sleep before his alarm woke him up. Normally Tony wasn’t a morning person, in fact, he normally woke up way past noon since he stays up so damn late at night, but today was important. Today was the day that he would bring Amanda home. 

_ “You seem to be in an upbeat mood this morning, sir,”  _ JARVIS’ voice rang through the kitchen as Tony was grabbing something quick to eat.

“I have no reason not to be, I’m bringing Manda home today.”

_ “Oh, how I’m going to miss the peace and quiet around here.” _

“I don’t think it’ll be that bad, JARVIS.” 

_ “If you say so, sir.” _

Tony couldn’t help but roll his eyes at that. While JARVIS was most likely right, Tony didn’t want to think about the disadvantages of this, but wanted to focus on the new addition to the family. Grabbing his keys, Tony went out to the only car of his that had the baby seat hooked up in it. Or… what did Happy say again? He  _ thought  _ he had it set up properly. That bothered Tony greatly; not the safety risk that follow through not having a baby seat set up correctly, but the fact that if he did it it would’ve been done correctly the first time. 

He made his way to said car that sitting in the front driveway and opened up the backdoor to see what he was dealing with here. It appeared that the carseat was hooked up properly… It was facing the backseat like it was supposed to, it looked like it was strapped in securely. What was Happy worried about? Once again, the parental instinct was kicking in; something was telling him to break test the car to see how the carseat would hold up.

_ Well, what’s the worst that could happen? It looks perfectly fine,  _ Tony thought to himself as he got into the driver's seat. The car purred to life when the key was inserted into the ignition. First, he slammed his foot on the gas, casing it to jerk forward. Tony looked in the rearview mirror at the seat, it looked fine to him, but as soon as he slammed on the breaks the seat launched forward, tumbling to the car floor.

“Oookay… so that’s the worse that could happen…” Tony mumbled to himself, putting his car in park and then turning off the car. 

Well, he was going to be a little late than what he had expected to go pick up Amanda because he had to figure out how to put this in place. He glanced around the backseat once he got back there to find the instruction booklet. It was literally nowhere to be found. Tony was great at putting together many things; this baby seat was not one of those things. He had no idea what he was looking at and wasn’t even sure where to start. 

There was only one thing left that he could possibly do. 

“Happy!” Tony said into his cell-phone as soon as Happy answered his phone call. 

_ “Tony,” _ Happy answered, unenthusiastically, as it was clear he was either just waking up and hasn’t had his coffee yet, or was still sleeping and was just woken up by Tony.  _ “What is it?” _

“So, remember how you installed that baby car seat in my car and you couldn’t really figure it out?”

_ “Yeah…?” _

“Yeaaah… where’s the instruction booklet for that?” There was a slight pause on Happy’s end of the line, causing Tony to think that he had hung up on him. “Happy?”

“ _ You, of all people, called me to ask for help to put something together?”  _ Even though Tony couldn’t physically see Happy right now, he could just tell that he had a smug smile on his face over this situation.

“No, I called to ask where the-”

_ “No, I know what you called for. I have the instruction booklet right here.” _

Tony pinched the bridge of his nose in slight frustration, he knew Happy knew this was killing him, but he just needed to get the seat placed in properly. “Okay, then I  _ guess  _ I called to ask for your help. Read to me how to do it.”

“ _ Wouldn’t it be easier for me to come ove-” _

“Nope. Read.”

There was a lot of shuffling on the other end of the line, it was annoying enough that Tony had to pull the phone away from his ear until it stopped.  _ “Okay. Are you ready?” _

“Always,” he answered as he put the car seat into position, getting ready to do what Happy told him to. 

Another long pause as Happy was scanning the page to see what was important to read out loud and what wasn’t important. “‘ _ Place car seat rear-facing in the back seat.” _

“Way ahead of you, next.”

“‘ _ Make sure latch strap or seat belt is routed through the rear-facing belt path marked with a blue label.’” _

Tony waited for Happy to explain where the belt path was located at since he couldn’t see the diagram that was on the instruction booklet. “And that is... ?” 

_ “Oh, right. In the picture it looks like it’s right on the front of the seat.” _

“Front as it the front-front, or front as in near the front seat?

_ “Ye-... the… second one?”  _ Tony started searching for what Happy was talking about but he couldn’t exactly see anything like what he had described.  _ “No, no, no. I mean the first option. By the feet.”  _

Tony found what Happy was talking about and tried feeding the seat belt through the belt path, but it felt like it was extremely impossible. It kept either twisting and turning, or locking up on him during the process. Okay, Tony will admit it wasn’t a hard task to do, but just having a tedious task like this  _ did  _ make it hard. It was feeding through correctly, seriously? How was this such a hard task? 

“Happy, is there an easier way to feed it through?” 

_ “Uh…”  _ Happy started skimming the page on the booklet again to find his answer.  _ “‘Note: it may be easier to route the seat belt by lifting the seat pad up to expose the belt path.’” _

Tony pulled up the seat pad like he was told to, and bam. There was the belt path. Yeah, it was going to be easy from here on out. He fed the seat belt through the car seat all the way to the other side like he was supposed to until it was revealed on the other side. 

“Now what?”

_ “Now you have to buckle it in to the car.” _

“Simple.” He did exactly that. “And now?”

_ “‘Lock the seat belt by slowly pulling the belt out all the way out and then letting it go back in. You will hear a clicking sound. Slowly pull on the belt and it should be locked.’” _

Tony pulled out the seat belt hand over hand, as if he was pulling on a rope until it stopped and nothing else was coming from it. He let go of it, letting it fly back inside the car and it clicked loudly. He tried pulling it out again, but everything he tugged the belt it would make the clicking sound again and wouldn’t budge. 

“And now?” 

_ “‘Tighten the seat belt by pressing down on the center of the car seat and pull on the shoulder belt to tighten while feeding it back into the retractor.’”  _

“It’s as tight as it goes.”

_ “‘Test for tightness. Grab the sides of the seat and slide it side to side and front to back. If the seat moves less than an inch, it is tight enough.”  _ Tony did just that and it barely moved at all, so that was good news.  _ “After that, you have to check the level indicator and make sure that the bubble is in the blue.” _

“Check.”

_ “And you’re done. Just remember the harness has to stay below the shoulders, the chest clips have to be even with the armpits, and you shouldn’t be able to pinch the straps at the shoulders.” _

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, Happy. Oh, Happy?”

_ “Yeah?” _

“There is something you should probably know. Last night the nurse called me, they said that Manda has Stage Five Kidney Failure.”

_ “And that means what, exactly?” _

“It means that her kidneys don’t work and she has to do a dialysis treatment three times a week so she can live.”

_ “Kidney transplant?” _

“Long list, but everything will be okay.”

_ “Okay… let me know when you get home.” _

“Will do.” Tony hung up the phone, shutting the back door and got back into the driver’s seat. He turned the car back on and made his way to the hospital to pick up his daughter. 

* * *

Tony went back up to the maternity ward where he had to go the other day to meet his daughter. The nurse from last time had recognized him in an instant and walked him into an empty room while they got Amanda ready to take home. Tony was being careful to not touch a single thing, due to the fact that this was a hospital and there were germs everywhere. 

Someone in a white coat walked into the room, Tony assumed him to be a doctor of some sort. 

“Mister Stark?” The doctor said, standing in the doorway.

“Yeah?” 

“The nurses contacted you last night about the kidney-”

“Yeah, yeah they did.” Tony didn’t want to be reminded that his daughter had a serious medical condition, but he had to face the music since it was serious enough that he was going to have to give her extra care at home. 

“And they told you how it had to be three times a week?” 

“Yes.”

“Great. I just wanted to stop by and tell you that there is a home dialysis machine that you can purchase and take home to do the treatments so you don’t have to keep coming in over and over every week.”

“That actually sounds great. I’ll take it.” 

“Great, if you wanna follow me I’ll give you a quick demonstration on how to use the machine and how to do the treatment.” 

* * *

The demonstration took almost an hour, the doctor had shown him how to set it up fresh out of the box, how to set it up properly, gave him a digital demonstration on how he would insert the needles and where he would insert them, and, of course, how to properly clean the machine. It didn’t really matter to Tony how long it took to learn how to do it, the point is he knew how to do it and they didn’t have to keep coming in every week, three times a week to do this. Especially since each treatment took almost three hours each. This would be extremely convenient for both of them, and to whoever would be babysitting Manda at the time. He loaded the small dialysis machine into the trunk of his car before going back into the room up in the maternity ward to meet Manda and the nurse there. 

He walked in, Manda was sleeping in the nurse's arms, wearing a white onesie and the nurse smiling at him. 

“I think she’s ready to go home,” the nurse told him, gently handing his daughter over to him. 

“I’m ready for her to come home,” he answered, making sure her head was properly elevated enough so she wouldn’t get hurt. 

“Well, you’re both free to go, Mister Stark. I wish you the best of luck.”

“Thank you, you too.” 

He made his way to the car, being careful the entire time as if he was carrying the world's most expensive jewel. She was asleep the entire way out to the car, that was a good sign, right? Right, that means it’ll be a peaceful ride home. He opened up the backseat of the car where the baby seat was located and he slowly and gently placed her in the seat. He didn’t want to wake her up. He put her arms through the harness of the seat and made sure it leveled out corrected to her armpits like Happy had told him to do, and he even pinched the harness by the shoulders to make sure there wasn’t any space left. Done. It was all done perfectly. 

“Ow!” Tony yelped, as he had hit his head on the roof of the car as he was backing out of it. He got into the driver’s seat, slamming his door shut. He held his breath and didn’t move for a moment when he heard Amanda shuffling in the back seat, he really, really, really hoped that he didn’t wake her up. “Thank God,” Tony sighed to himself, putting the keys into the ignition when she didn’t wake up from her sleep. 

It was a surprise that Amanda slept the entire way home, Tony read online that car rides could be considered soothing for babies for when they sleep, so maybe that was the case. As much as Tony wanted her to finally come home, now that she was here he wasn’t so sure what they were supposed to do now. Mainly just make sure she’s clean, feed, and healthy, that was about all he could do for someone her age. 

The moment Tony walked through the front door of his house, Amanda woke up, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. The moment she opened her eyes she started wailing at the top of her lungs, startling Tony enough to almost make him drop her. That would be an awkward trip back to the hospital. It was at that moment when Tony realized that he had completely forgotten all the reasons as to why she could be crying. He started bouncing her gently, hoping that would be soothing enough to her to get her to calm down and start crying. Nope. Of course not. 

Tony held her up so they were facing each other. “What’s the matter with you? Speak to me.” No answer. Only more crying. “Please stop crying, you’re home, you should be happy now. You’re outta that prison, you have a nice big house you live in now, I don’t understand why you’re upset.”

_ “If I could suggest, sir, why not try to see if she is hungry.” _

“I could’ve thought of that…” Tony mumbled to himself, shifting himself so he could safely hold Amanda with one hand as he made his way into the kitchen. “But, thank you, JARVIS.” 

_ “No problem, Mister Stark.” _

It was hard to think correctly to find the baby formula while Amanda was still wailing as loud as she possibly could. Tony kept opening up various cabinets to try to find the formula, he had no idea where he put it and he couldn’t even think of where he put it. Now Tony was starting to second guess himself, he  _ did  _ buy baby formula, right? Of course he did, he just had no idea where he put it. 

“I’m trying my best, Manda, I swear. I just can’t fin-” Tony paused mid sentence when he looked down at the counter in front of him and saw the jar of baby formula sitting there out in the open the entire time. “Never mind, you’re gonna be okay.”

The one thing about the formula that stuck in Tony’s mind was to  _ never _ put this stuff in the microwave. He couldn’t remember the exact reason as to why that’s like, the worse thing in the entire world, but he knew he shouldn’t do it. He grabbed a baby bottle from the counter and put it under the lukewarm water coming out of the sink. They’ve only been home for about… ten or so minutes and Tony was already starting to get a headache. He didn’t blame Amanda, of course, but he wasn’t enjoying the headache that much. Once the bottle was filled to the correct line of measurement, Tony set it on the counter, reaching over to the formula jar, but in the process, he accidently knocked over the bottle, causing the water to spill all over the place. 

“Son of a-...” He stopped himself from finishing that sentence, even though he knew that Manda wouldn’t understand what he was saying, he just didn’t want to make a habit out of swearing in front of her. 

Letting out a sigh, he grabbed the bottle and started to do the process all over again. This time he made sure that the bottle was out of the way when leaning over to get a spoonful of formula to pour into it. He made sure that the lid was on tight before shaking the bottle up to make sure that the formula dissolves properly, all while bouncing Manda to try to calm her down in the meantime. That didn’t work, but thankfully the bottle was done finally, hopefully this would work. 

Going into the living room where Tony set up the new rocking recliner chair, he plopped down on it, reaching over to grab the TV remote so he would have something to do while feeding Manda. He turned it on to a random news channel and turned the volume down to where he could barely hear it so the noise wouldn’t rile Manda up anymore than how she already was. He sets the bottle down at the end table as he gets Manda into position so she could drink out of the bottle with her head properly propped up so she wouldn’t choke or anything. 

“Please let this work,” Tony said mainly to himself as he put the bottles nipple in her mouth. 

Even with the bottle in her mouth, Manda was still fussing just for a moment until she tasted the formula and then she started to calm down. Her breathing started to regulate to a calm pace. Okay… okay, this wasn’t too bad. Simple enough, right? If this was all that it took to get her to stop crying then being a parent would be a piece of cake. 

It didn’t take long for the bottle to become empty, it was hard to remember that newborns have smaller stomachs than normal… big peoples? Tony took it out of her mouth, he expected her to start crying again, but her eyes were still closed and her breathing was still calm, so he assumed that she had fallen asleep again. 

Taking the chance, since he had woke up early, Tony gently started rocking the chair back and forth while he had his eyes shut so he could rest just for a little bit. It felt like he only reseted his eyes for thirty-seconds, when in reality it was almost five minutes until Manda started getting fussy again. Her small hands were balled up in fists, moving them around while she began to cry again. 

“No, no, what’s wrong now?” Tony asked her, but, of course, no answer came from the infant. Tony thought about it for a second. He realized what he forgot to do. “Never mind, I remembered, I got you.”

He sat forward, putting Manda over his shoulder and started to gently pat her back to try and burp her. There was something that was biting at Tony’s mind, he knew there was something extremely specific he had to do while burping her, but he couldn’t place his finger on what it was. 

The moment he felt a warm spot on his back was exactly the moment he remembered what he forgot. You’re supposed to put a towel or something over his shoulder while burping her or she may spit up all over him. That’s exactly what he got from that. He moved Manda and held her up so they were facing each other.

“I hope you’re proud of yourself.” Manda answered by only a small smile on her face. “Yeah, you’re proud of yourself.”

_ “You know, sir, you should write some parenting books,”  _ JARVIS’ voice rang out through the living room. 

“Ha ha, very funny.” Tony rolled his eyes. 

* * *

The entire day was just extremely tiring for Tony. He didn’t realize how often Manda needed to be changed and feed throughout the day. She mainly napped all day in her bedroom, Tony wasn’t sure if it would be okay for him to be downstairs in the workshop while she was all the way upstairs sleeping in her crib. So instead he spent his whole day watching TV, dozing off, and keeping a close listen to the baby monitor he had in the living room. It was, what? Every two or three hours Manda would be hungry again and needed to be burped afterwards, and then instantly went back to sleep. The main thing was that he was starting to get into the routine and knew exactly what to try whenever she started to get fussy or started crying. 

It was almost one in the morning and Tony decided that he should try to get some sleep in his own bed instead of the living room couch. Before he even thought about getting himself ready for bed, he changed Manda again, feed her, burped her, and gave her a small sponge bath, making sure he avoided the umbilical cord stump that apparently had to remain dry at all times. He put a new diaper on her, put her in her feety pajamas that had a spaceship on it. He swaddled her in a blanket before rocking her back to sleep. The gentle rocking was almost putting Tony to sleep, he had to force himself to stay awake.

It didn’t take long for Manda to fall back asleep, so at the first chance, Tony put her back in her crib before making his way back to his bedroom. He made sure to keep both his own door and her door opened just in case she started to cry in the middle of the night. Which didn’t make much since he had a baby monitor in his room too, but whatever. 

Tony went over the entire day in his head a couple of times before he ended up falling asleep. He thought that his first day alone with Manda went pretty well, especially since he never cared for a child ever in his life. Yeah, everything was going to be okay.   


	4. First Checkup

It’s been an entire month since Manda moved in with Tony, she was, clearly, one-month-old and everything had been going great. She was eating well, sleeping good enough for an infant (sleeping about seventeen-hours a day), and she clearly recognized Tony’s and JARVIS’ voice at this point. Tony was a little concerned that Manda didn’t recognize her own name yet, but JARVIS said that she wouldn’t until she was around six-months-old. Obie has been around a little more often to spend time with both Manda and Tony, making sure that everything was going well with the two of them, which it was. Happy was around a lot too, he always was, but now he came over earlier than he normally did to see his niece. Tony had to remind him that Manda was most likely sleeping, but that didn’t stop Happy from coming over. It was nice to know that Manda had a nice, small happy family for support.

Tony had gotten numerous reminders about Manda’s first doctor check up, apparently this was the most important check up in a baby’s life. Tony wasn’t arguing that fact, but he didn’t understand why they called him almost every day to remind him. It was annoying, and at that point he memorized what times they called to remind him, so he would pick up, then hang up since it was just a robot each time. Even though with all the reminders of the day and time, Tony still almost woke up late to get them around to the appointment, thankfully he had JARVIS to wake him up.

 _“Sir? Sir. Sir, you need to wake up,”_ JARVIS’ voice rang loudly through Tony’s bedroom who only grunted in response. _“Sir, it is 11:30 in the morning. The appointment is at noon.”_

That got Tony’s attention quickly. He sat up, pushed the blanket back, swung his legs over the bed and started to scramble to get ready. He got dressed as quick as possible, mumbling something under his breath the whole time. Surprisingly, with all the noise that Tony was making in his room, he didn’t wake up Manda who was literally in the room next to his. When he went in she was still sound asleep in the center of her crib.

“Wakey, wakey,” Tony said to Manda in a quiet yet calming voice as he gently picked her up. She fussed a bit, but when she realized that it was just her dad a smile crossed her face. “‘Morning, alien. I call you that because all of you babies look like little aliens when you’re born.” Did he really just explain that to a newborn who had no idea what he was saying? Yes, yes he did. “Okay, trust me, today is gonna suck for both of us; mainly you, but I’m not gonna be happy watching this either,” he explained as he put her on the changing table and started changing her diaper and changing her clothes. “You’re gonna be examined like you’re an alien, maybe that’s another reason why I call you that, except they hopefully won’t dissect you.”

Manda had no idea what he was saying, it was all a bunch of jumbled nonsense to her, but it appeared as though she was listening intently. She keep looking up at Tony, her brown eyes were wide in confusion.

“They’re gonna be poking you, jabbing in needles. Gross…” Tony stopped himself from talking, he was freaking himself out, even though the appointment wasn’t even for him. “I’m gonna shut up now.”

He picked her up and went downstairs so he could feed her real quick before getting out the door. Tony grabbed the extra made bottle from the refrigerator, shook it up and feed her all while he started to put his shoes on. A month ago, it seemed like a bad idea to do anything else while feeding a baby, but Tony quickly found out that it was just fine and sometimes you just had to do that, especially if you were running late to a doctors appointment. The time Tony made his way out to the car that was parked in the driveway, Manda had finished her breakfast/lunch. Two birds with one stone.

The entire time Tony was putting her in her car seat, Manda was cooing loudly with a smile on her face. She was a happy baby most of the time, unless she wanted something. Car rides seemed to be Manda’s favorite thing, it was probably because of the soft, space themed hanging toys on her carseat. She would try to reach for it with her small hands, but she would never reach it since she was still too small.

As soon as Manda was fastened into the car seat, she immediately tried to reach up for the sun plush that was hanging above her. “That’s the sun,” Tony tried to explain to her, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t remember a thing he was saying. “That’s what makes our Earth warm.” Manda cooed in response, now trying to each up to the moon toy. Tony took ahold of it, pulling it down slightly so Manda could get a grip on it. “That’s the moon, you can only see it at night in the sky. It’s job is to stabilize the Earth’s rotation.” He planted a kiss on her forehead before closing the backdoor and got into the driver's seat.

When the car started, _Brass Monkey_ by the Beastie Boys played through the speakers. Tony pulled out of the driveway and made his way to the doctors office.

* * *

The very first thing the nurse did when Tony checked Manda in was get a height measurement and a weight from the child. Tony had no idea what was a good range for her to be in with the measurement and weight, but he assumed that it was good since the nurse didn’t commented much on it besides the generic “you’re getting so big!”. She measured out to be 22 in and 11.8 pounds. Tony couldn’t believe how small she truly was.

They were both in an empty exam room, Tony was holding Manda in his arms. The whole time she was calm, but now she was starting to get fussy and Tony was silently begging her to not start crying. He began to cuddle the child, gently rocking her back and forth to sooth her. Thankfully it did work and she started to settle down, grabbing a small fistful of Tony’s shirt.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Tony told her, patting her back.

There was a knock at the door before the doctor came into the room with a clipboard and a pen. He sat on a small stool that was in front of the desk in the room.

“How are you doing, Mister Stark?” Was the first thing that the doctor asked him.

“I’m fine.”

“That’s great. I’m Eric Reynolds, I’m gonna be Amanda’s doctor.” Doctor Reynolds was about to reach out to offer a hand to Tony to shake, but that’s when he realized that his hands were full. “We’re going to be doing a full physical exam on Amanda today, along with a Hepatitis B shot.” He explained as he washed his hands and put on a pair of rubber gloves. “And then I’ll ask some questions at the end and we’ll go from there. Sound good?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright.” Doctor Reynolds held out his hands to Tony who handed him Amanda. “The first thing I’ll be doing is checking the head to make sure it’s shaping out right,” he explained as he laid her down on the examination chair.

It was weird watching the doctor feel around Amanda’s head, it was making Tony a little paranoid and anxious, but he knew that the doctor knew what he was doing.

“Soft spot is good, the shape is fine…” The doctor said aloud. He started pressing around gently on Manda’s abdomen to make sure there isn’t any tenderness, enlarged organs or an umbilical hernia. Nope, everything felt just fine. “Everything’s all right there…” Doctor Reynolds gently grabbed onto Manda’s ankles, lifting them up slightly and started moving them in a pedaling motion to check for any dislocations. “All good. Are there any issues you’ve think that should be addressed?”

Tony slowly shook his head. “Nope. None.”

“Great.” Doctor Reynolds started checking her skin, checking for any rashes or birthmarks. Nothing there either. Her skin was extremely soft and clear. “Here, I’m gonna need your help for this one. I’m gonna need you to hold her up in a sitting position so I can check her lungs and heart.”

“Sure.”

Tony stood up, moving Manda from a laying down position to a sitting up position. Manda had no idea what was going on or who this strange man was and why he was poking around at her, but she wasn’t really enjoying it that much. She also didn’t really enjoying being in the sitting up position that she was in. She started to become a little fussy and started to squirm a little bit, but it was nothing that Tony couldn’t handle.

Doctor Reynolds had a stethoscope in his ears, he placed the cold diaphragm on Manda’s back, causing her to squirm a bit more than she already was. The doctor moved the diaphragm around to different spots on her back and chest to make sure he got a good hearing on the heart. Manda’s heart rate was almost ninety beats per minute. So it was normal.

“Just keep holding her up like that, I just need to check a few more things.”

Doctor Reynolds grabbed the otoscope that was hooked up to the wall, draping it over towards the examine table so he could get a look inside her ears. The main thing that he was looking for was any unusual fluid buildup or any ear infection. It looked like there was a small fluid buildup in her left ear, but it was normal and would drain out on its own.

“While we’re in the ear area of this exam, why don’t we see if she can recognize your voice. Just say her name, she should know your voice by now.”

“Manda,” Tony said. The infant's ears perks up a little bit, she looked around to try to find where her dad's voice was coming from.

Doctor Reynolds put the otoscope back on the wall, trading it out for an opthalmoscope. He shined the light in small light in Manda’s eyes to see how she would react to that. She squinted away from the light when it was flashed in her eyes and kept blinking over and over once it was removed.  Doctor Reynolds stepped back to the door of the room, calling for a nurse to get the shot ready before coming back to check the inside of the child's mouth to make sure there wasn’t any type of infections going on.

“This is the part that parents always look away from,” Doctor Reynolds explained to Tony when the nurse from earlier came back into the room with a tray filled with everything that he needed to give her the Hepatitis B shot that was required. “They can’t stand watching their kids get a shot. So, you can either hold onto her while I give her the shot, or the nurse can do it.”

“Uh…” Tony had to think about it for a second, he wasn’t sure if he should try to do it and risk anything, or just have a nurse do it where it was guaranteed to be done as quick as possible. “I guess have a nurse do it.”

“Oh! While we’re at it, I’m going to take a small blood sample to have a check up on her kidneys since we’re here and have the nurse here. It’ll be quick.”

“Just do what’cha gotta do, doc.”

Tony stepped back when the nurse had ahold of Manda so they could get the shot and the blood sample done and out of the way. He thought that he could stomach watching the doctor give his daughter a simple shot. Well, he thought wrong. As soon as that needle went in to her inner thigh, it felt like his stomach was in knots and he was starting to feel queasy. Manda started wailing at the top of her lungs from the shock and slight pain of the shot and the blood sample. It truly did break Tony’s heart, he wanted to tell them to just forget it, just so she wouldn’t have to go through this, but he knew that it was important so he kept it to himself.

“See, honey? We’re all done,” the nurse tried telling Manda with a smile on her face as the doctor took the tray out of the room to trade it off with another nurse. “It wasn’t that bad, was it?” Manda just kept crying, she didn’t even seem to notice that someone was talking to her. The nurse kept on talking to the child as she was bandaging up the site where the blood was taken from in the arm. “We’re all done picking on you, I promise,” she told her one last time before handing her back over to Tony.

“That sample should be coming back pretty quick, the lab is dead today,” Doctor Reynolds explained when he came back into the room. “While we wait I’ll just ask you some basic questions.”

“Okay,” Tony said as he sat back down, trying his best to comfort Manda.

“How is she sleeping?”

“She’s sleeping fine. About seventeen or eighteen hours a day.” He watched as the doctor scribbled down Tony’s answer on the clipboard he brought in from before.

“Does she quiet down a bit at the sound of your voice?”

“Yeah.”

“How often is she eating?”

Tony had to stop and think about that one. He just fed her whenever she started to get fussy that he never really stopped to think about it. “Jeez, I dunno… maybe twelve or so times a day?”

“Yeah, that’s about normal I’d say. Is she awake for longer periods at a time and does she start to get fussier at the end of the day?”

“Yes, and yes.”

“Does she make cooing noises when she’s content and alert?”

“Yeah.”

“And is there anything unusual about her eyes or how she looks at things do you think?”

“No, I think they’re fine.”

“Alright, those are all the questions I have about that. The nurse will be back in in a moment with those results for you, alright?”

“Thanks, doc.”

Doctor Reynolds took his clipboard and left the room, closing the door behind him. Manda was starting to fall asleep in Tony’s arms from the long day that she went through. Was it longer for her or longer for him? Probably her, she was the one who had to get the shots and the blood sample. All Tony felt was unease from watching them give her the shot.

“They didn’t dissect you too bad,” Tony whispered to her, even though he knew that she was sound asleep and had no idea what that meant to begin with.

After a couple of minutes of just sitting there with Manda, there was another small knock on the door again, and a nurse let herself in holding a piece of paper.

“So, from the blood sample it shows that nothing has changed with her kidney function. It’s not getting worse and it’s not getting better, so keep on doing those three dialysis treatments a week and hopefully the list will shorten up soon.”

“Thank you.”


	5. A Night Out

For the first five months that Amanda has come to live with Tony, he has barely left the house for anything. He had Happy go out and pick up groceries, Obie was the one who had to take over his presentations for him since he had to stay home with Manda. As much as Tony loved his daughter, what he would give to have a night out with Rhodey just drinking and have no worries. Of course, he wouldn’t just let anyone babysit his child. In fact, there is only one person that he would allow to be a babysitter. 

“Uncle Happy is here!” Happy announced as he walked into Tony’s house, he had a huge smile on his face as he loved spending time with his niece. 

Tony finally made arrangements to go out to meet Obie and Rhodey to meet at a high end bar, he really needed to get out of the house, and of course, Happy was willing to watch Amanda. It was either Happy babysitting or there would be no night out. 

“Thanks for doing this for me, Happy,” Tony told him as he was putting his wallet in his back pocket. “I feel so trapped in here.”

“It’s no problem, Tony, I love spending time with my niece!” He said with his smile still just as big as when he got here. “Don’tchu worry about a thing tonight, I’ll handle everything.” 

Manda was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, well,  _ barely  _ sitting, she had just learned recently to sit up on her own, she was wobbling slightly side to side to keep herself balanced. She had her small hand in her mouth, chewing on it while her eyes were locked on whatever bright, colorful, loud kids show was playing on the TV. 

“It felt like just yesterday you brought her home,” Happy commented, watching Manda trying to stay balanced.

“God, I know, it’s unbelievable how quick she’s growing up.” Tony looked down at his watch. “Alright, I gotta go. I got everything covered for you. She’s bathed, I fed her changed her, and she already did her dialysis treatment. You should be golden, she’ll probably sleep through the night.” He knelt down next to Manda, planting a kiss on the top of her head. “I’ll be home later, sweetie. Your Uncle Happy will take good care of you.” 

Tony and Happy said their goodbyes before Tony left for his well deserved night out. The way that Tony was talking with how he had everything covered made it seem like that tonight was going to be easy for Happy. Well, that’s how it started off, of course.

Everything was perfect at first. All Manda did was sit there and stare at the TV, but that wasn’t right to her. She looked around the room, and even though she did enjoy her Uncle Happy’s company, but she didn’t see or hear her dad and that was upsetting to her. Even though Manda had no idea what Tony was saying to her, he would still just talk to her as if she did understand him. He’d talk about his day, about what was bothering him, his thought process, things like that, it was still comforting to Manda to hear her dad’s voice. 

Tears started to fill in Manda’s eyes, she started whimpering and tumbled over onto her side. That was the final straw for her, she started crying, screaming at the top of her lungs. The sudden change from silence to screaming startled Happy to no end. He was minding his own business, reading a book, next thing that he realized was that his niece was having a fit for what seemed like no reason. 

“No, hey, what’s the matter?” Happy tried asking, knowing fully that he wouldn’t get an answer back, but he needed to try to calm her down in some way. He moved from the couch to the floor next to his niece, sitting her up again. “Don’t be sad, Manda. Be happy, see?” He glanced around, trying to find something that could be used to distract her with. 

Happy picked up a couple of colorful, plastic blocks first to see if that would do the trick. He tried stacking them to a small tower, he tried to place them side by side to see if that would grab Manda’s attention, but nothing was working with her. Whatever was bothering her it was really, really bothering her. Next, Happy picked up Manda’s favorite penguin shaped rattle. Out of any toy that she owned, this was probably the best bet when trying to make her happy. Happy shook it, hoping that it would start to work, but it had no effect on her whatsoever. 

“What do you want me to do? I’ll do anything to make you stop crying.”

_ “Mister Hogan,”  _ JARVIS’ voice rang out through the living room,  _ “perhaps you could try burping her. Mister Stark did forget to do that after feeding her.” _

“Good idea, JARVIS.” Happy pulled himself back onto the couch, reaching down to pick up Manda. There was a rag right next to him on the couches arm rest, he tossed it over his left shoulder, propping up Manda so he could burp her properly. “Everything’ll be okay,” Happy soothed as he was gently patting her back. 

Nothing was happening with that either, if anything, trying to burp her only gave her the hiccups and that was making her even more fussy.  _ Should I call Tony?  _ Happy thought, giving up on burping her at this point and just holding her.  _ No, no, Tony deserves the night off from any of this. I can figure it out myself.  _

“Okay, are you hungry again? Maybe you just need to eat.” Happy set her down on the couch, making sure she was sitting up so she couldn’t accidently move herself so she was facing downward. “Stay here, don’t move.” Manda just looked up at him, watching him leave the living room and go into the kitchen. 

Knowing that it probably wasn’t such a good idea leaving a five month old sitting on the couch all by herself when she couldn’t sit up on her own so well, so Happy was trying to hurry when looking for the baby food. He tried getting into the refrigerator, but it was locked up with a safety child lock. Great… Now he had to try to figure this out. Happy hated safety child locks, they were almost impossible to do, well, for him that is. The lock wrapped from the edge of the refrigerator door to its side. Since there was a large button on the front, that’s the first thing that he pressed, the thing is, the button that he pressed wasn’t a real button, it was a decoy button. Tony was thinking ahead, he had a strong feeling that when Manda got older at that exploring age would figure out how to open the child lock on her own. Happy tried everything that he could think of; he tried pulling on it, pushing on it, pressing the decoy button again, he even tried to force open the refrigerator door, but nothing worked. 

Going over the child safety lock one more time, Happy felt a small button on top of the lock that was attached to the door. He swore under his breath as he pressed the button, the latch dropped, freeing the refrigerator door. 

“Finally!” Happy said opening the door and picked up one of the small jars of baby food. He picked up turkey and turkey gravy and a one of the baby spoons that were sitting on the table, quickly making his way back to the living room. As soon as he walked in the room, he saw that Manda wasn’t sitting up anymore, but she was crawling towards the edge of the couch. Happy moved quickly, dropping the small jar of food on the end table, grabbing the baby before she managed to fall off the couch. “Do not tell your dad,” Happy told Manda, holding her up to his eye level. 

With Manda and the small jar of food in hand, Happy went into the dining room, placing the child in her highchair. That seemed to be making it worse, she started squirming around, whining even more than before. 

“Just… eat,” Happy said, holding the spoon up to her mouth. She turned her head away. “If you’re not hungry then what is it? I’ll give you money if you stop. Well, I don’t have a lot of money, but I’ll give you a quarter. Well, no, not a quarter because you’ll try to eat it, but I’ll give you something. A dollar. I’ll give you a dollar if you stop.” 

Before Happy picked her up again he went ahead and made some formula to see if that would work. Nope, nothing. He then tried to bounce her to calm her down, but yeah, nothing was working at all. 

He groaned. “JARVIS, help me. What do I do?” Happy looked at Manda again, he noticed that she had been chewing on her hands and fingers the whole time he’d been here. “Okay, scratch that. JARVIS, she’s been chewing on her hands, what’s that supposed to mean?”

_ “I’m no expert, Mister Hogan, but a common reason a baby is chewing on their hands is because they are teething.” _

“And what do I do to help that?”

_ “Mister Stark doesn’t have any teething toys ready, but a makeshift could be a cold washcloth. It’ll take some of the pain of teething away.” _

“Great idea, thanks JARVIS.”

Happy propped Manda up with his hip as he was running cold water under a clean washcloth that he grabbed from the counter next to the sink. Hopefully this will work. Sitting back on the couch in the living room, Happy had Manda up at his side while he was holding the washcloth up to her mouth. It took her a minute to understand, but when she realized what she could do with it, she opened her mouth and stuck the washcloth in it, gently chewing on it. It was like a magic charm, she stopped crying and settled down instantly. 

“Oh, thank God,” Happy said under his breath. 

Once Manda was done with the washcloth, Happy feed her the formula while they were both watching the Kids Network. Finally, peace and quiet. It wasn’t long before they both fell asleep on the couch. 

Almost an hour later, Tony came back home. He wasn’t drunk, but he certainly was tipsy. He had to remind himself all night that he had to drive himself back home afterwards since Happy was busy here. He had a great night out with Obie and Rhodey, but he did actually miss Manda’s company the whole time. 

“I’m home!” Tony announced, walking through the front door. He had expected Happy to be there to answer him, but it was too quiet. He walked into the living room to see Happy sleeping on the couch with Manda still snuggled up to him sleeping peacefully. “Aw, isn’t that cute?” Tony said to himself. He picked up the camera that he keeps around the house just for moments like this. He honestly couldn’t help himself from taking a picture of the moment. That’s going to make a great memory. 


	6. First Birthday

_ June 6, 2001 _

There is nothing more than giving your child the world; the best clothes, the best toys, the best education, the best parties. This was Tony’s mindset, but he had to ask himself: how do you give a one-year-old a great birthday party? Neither of them knew very many people, Tony didn’t know anyone with kids. Hell, he only knew three people that he considered family to show up. There wasn’t much that Tony could do for a one-year-old’s party, since she won’t really remember it anyways, but he wanted to do the best that he could. 

Manda was put down for her afternoon nap at noon exactly, it was almost three in the afternoon at this point. During the three hours that Tony had free, he made sure that he set up a small party that was colorful and simple for a one-year-old to understand. He had some colorful dinosaur decorations set up, he even bought some dinosaur shaped balloons, figuring that it’ll be something that’ll catch her attention. She loved to investigate new things, so yeah, she’ll love some balloons.

“What’da think?” Tony asked Happy, Rhodey, and Obie when he led them into newly decorated living room. “I put a lot of planning into it.”

“How much planning do you have to put into a one-year-old’s party?” Rhodey asked with a smile on his face.

Tony turned around to face him. “Not much, but I wanted it to be perfect.”

“I don’t think Manda will care if it’s perfect or not,” Obie added. “I think she’ll be too interested in the wrapping paper to notice.”

Tony shrugged and nodded in agreement. “Good point. Very good point. Either way, I’ll be happy that she’s happy. I’m gonna go get her.” He hurried upstairs, clearly excited that it was her first birthday, more excited than she was (even though she had no idea what a birthday was). He opened the first door on the right, walking into Manda’s room. She was sleeping peacefully in her crib, wrapped up in her wearable blanket. Tony lowered the bar of the crib, he then moved Manda so she was in a sitting position to wake her up. “Rise and shine,” Tony said to her as he was rubbing her back to help her wake up some more. She started rubbing her eyes, letting out a yawn. “Nap’s over, wakey wakey.”

Before actually going downstairs, Tony changed her and put her into a AC/DC shirt and shorts. The whole time he was doing that, she kept looking at him like he was crazy. She hated being woken up from her naps, she prefered to wake up on her own accord.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Tony continued as he picked her up, “I think you’re gonna enjoy what I woke you up for.” He carried her downstairs. “It may not be much, but just know that I tried my best, even though you don’t have any idea of what’s going on here.”

Once they walked into the living room, Manda saw and recognized her Uncle Rhodey, Uncle Happy, and Uncle Obie. She had a huge smile on her face from seeing all the people she loved in one place. Everyone said  _ Happy Birthday!  _ at once, causing her to smile even bigger. Just like Tony had thought, she had no idea what was going on, but she didn’t really care, she loved having her uncle’s over. Manda started to squirm in Tony’s arms, meaning that she wanted to get down to socialize. Instead, Tony sat down on the floor up against the couch with Manda standing in between his legs. She was wobbling side to side trying to keep her balance, she had to grab onto her dad’s shirt to keep herself from falling over.

While Tony was trying to reach over for the small tub of yogurt and the bottle of chocolate milk to give to Manda as a regular after nap routine. Manda wasn’t at all concerned with the yogurt or the chocolate milk, she was mainly focused on everyone that was there and all the balloons that were floating about. She was babbling in her baby talk, holding up her arms to a T-Rex balloon that was  _ just  _ out of reach. Uncle Rhodey noticed what she was after, so he grabbed the string and handed it over to her. 

It never ceases to amaze Tony how normal, everyday things amused the one-year-old so much, it was amusing to say the least. She was holding on to the actual balloon, squeezing it, there wasn’t strength in her tiny hands to actually pop the balloon, so they weren’t worried about that. Tony was holding up the spoon that was filled with yogurt to try to get Manda’s attention, it was time for her to eat something. Obi was having fun taking pictures of Manda on her special day, his favorite one that he just took was Manda showing off the balloon to her dad while there was yogurt all over her face, they both had smiles on their faces. 

“I’m never going to get over how quickly she’s growing,” Rhodey commented. 

“I know, time is going by so fast,” Tony agreed. 

Tony grabbed Manda, sitting her down on the floor in between his legs. “Time to open presents,” he told her, but again, she didn’t know what that meant, plus, she was more focused on the balloon. “Lemme see that.” He plucked the balloon string, moving it from out of her reach, it looked like she was about to start crying, but Happy quickly replaced it with a present that made loud crinkle sounds, catching the girls attention. 

“Check this out, it’s more interesting,” Happy told her, making the wrapping paper make more crinkling sounds. 

More interesting it was. For the wrong reasons, of course. Tony pulled a bit of the wrapping paper out so it would be easier for Manda to get ahold of and rip it open herself. Once she understood how to do that she wouldn’t stop, even after the toy was exposed from the paper that’s all she wanted. The paper. 

“Maybe we should’ve just given her a huge roll of wrapping paper to rip up, that would’ve been cheaper,” Obie commented after he snapped another picture.

The first thing that Manda had opened up was a  _ Chop & Count Dino  _ that was from Uncle Happy. When she realized that the toy had bright lights and talked that turned into her new obsession for the next five minutes. It was clear to tell that the kids favorite thing were dinosaurs. Along with her Dino toy she also got a caterpillar shaped xylophone from Uncle Obie, a cube shape sorter from Uncle Rhodey, and a toy raceway from Tony. Even though she seemed very interested in the toys, the paper is all she really wanted. 

Everyone moved into the dining room so they could get some cake. Tony was sitting on the left of the highchair that Manda was now sitting in while Obie was sitting on the right. Tony was putting batteries in the raceway toy and Obie was feeding her cake. A lot of pictures were taken that day with everyone, good memories all around, it was something that Tony couldn’t wait to show her when she was older. 


	7. Tantrums

_ December 3, 2003 _

Nothing was worse than a three-and-a-half-year-old who was going into their “rebellious” phase. Now, what exactly does that “rebellious” phase consist of? Pushing the limits of what Tony would or wouldn’t tolerate, being as annoying as possible, and, of course, not wanting to follow the bedtime rules. Manda’s new obsession as of late was her new _ Nintendo Gamecube _ , even though it’s been, like, two years since the Gamecube came out, Tony thought that Manda would be perfectly fine with her _ Nintendo 64 _ . Some things needs to be upgraded once in a while. Her favorite game on the  _ Nintendo 64  _ was the original  _ Super Smash Bros,  _ so, of course, her new favorite game for the  _ Gamecube _ was  _ Super Smash Bros. Melee.  _ Mix it up with her favorite cartoon  _ Pokemon  _ it was the best game on the planet. 

Normally Manda’s bedtime was at ten, tonight, however, she was pushing it to almost ten thirty. Tony had told her almost thirty minutes ago that she better be ready for bed by the time he got out of the shower or else he’ll be upset. Did Manda believe that he would get upset? Yeah. Did she really care about that right now? Not really. All Manda wanted to do was unlock more characters, she had already unlocked three, she wanted to unlock them all. 

Manda was sitting up on her knees on the floor right up to the TV so she could “concentrate” better. That was her logic, the closer you are to the TV, the better you’ll be able to fight. She totally lost track of time, well, she had no real concept of time, but that wasn't the point. She overestimated the time that Tony had been in the shower, so she was surprised to see him come back downstairs in his pyjamas “so soon.” Tony wasn’t surprised that Manda was still on the  _ Gamecube _ but he was also annoyed that she didn’t listen to him. 

“Amanda Maria Stark!” Tony said, folding his arms over his chest. The three-year-old jumped, turning around to look at her dad. “What do you think you’re doing?” 

“Umm…” Manda muttered, looking from her dad to the TV then back to her dad. “Playin’  _ Gamecube _ .”

“What did I tell you to do before I went into the shower?” 

“Umm…”

“Did it sound like: ‘make sure you get your pyjamas on and turn the game off’?” Manda didn’t say anything, she just turned her attention back to the TV. “Are you serious right now?” He moved to the couch, sitting down, folding his arms over his chest again. “I’m going to give you one last chance to save your game before I take it.” 

Still no answer.

“Right, okay. Don’t say I didn’t give you a fair warning.” He stood up from the couch, kneeling down in front of the TV to unplug all the cords from the back of the console. 

“Hey!” Manda shouted, holding the controller so tight in her hand that her small knuckles were turning white. “Thas’ mine!” She stood up when Tony started to take the console into the kitchen. “Thas’ mine!” She tried yelling again, she got no response from Tony and that was upsetting her. 

There was only one place in the entire house that Manda couldn’t get things from and that was at the top of the refrigerator. 

“Thas’ not fair, Daddy!” She started again. “You dent give me a chance to save!” 

“Yes I did.”

“No you dent!” 

“I did.” Manda walked up to her dad, she threw her arm back and was about to hit him, but Tony managed to grab her arm before she could even hit him. He got down to her level, clearly upset with how she was trying to handle things. “Look at me,” he said in a new stern voice he hasn’t even used yet as a parent, “you know better than to hit anyone.” Manda tried looking away from him, but he grabbed her chin, forcing her to look back up at him. “I wasn’t done talking to you yet. If you hit me or even try to swing at me I’m taking away your  _ Gamecube  _ for a week. Do you understand? We do not hit. Hitting hurts.” 

Manda started to pout, she didn’t like the tone that Tony was using, she knew that he was mad at her, but she didn’t like it being that obvious. Tears were in her eyes, not from feeling sad about being scolded, but because she was feeling angry about this whole situation. She tried to retract her arm back from her dad but he wasn’t letting up.

“Do you understand?” Tony repeated slowly. 

“Yes!” Tony let go of her arm, causing her to stagger backwards. “Thas’ not fair!”

“First you said you understand, now you said it isn’t fair?” Tony saw the look in her eyes. “Do not. Don’t you dare.”

Manda took a deep breath in before screaming at the top of her lungs while crying. Tony couldn’t help but roll his eyes at this, why did she have to throw a fit about this? It was just a game, besides, the game would’ve been waiting for her tomorrow. 

“I dun wanna to go bed!” She yelled, laying on the kitchen floor, stomping her feet down over and over. “Daaad!” 

“I’m ignoring you.” Tony sat at the dining table, his elbows propped up on said table with his chin resting on his hands waiting for her to stop her tantrum. 

The entire ordeal lasted for a good ten minutes, that whole time Tony didn’t say a word to Manda no matter what she was saying to him and no matter how she was acting. A side point was that she didn’t hit him, so that was something. The entire tantrum wore her out, she just laid on the floor, not moving and not saying anything, just staring up at the ceiling. She let out a whine, standing up and made her way back to the living room. All Tony did was watch to see what she was doing, he didn’t want to get involved in case it was a trick for her to get his attention. 

It wasn’t a trick at all, Manda was exhausted, but she wasn’t really ready to admit that she was exhausted. Instead, she climbed into the recliner that Tony used to rock her to sleep for her naps and for bed. She rested her head on the arm rest, staring at the  _ No Signal  _ on the TV in front of the blank, black background. She was fighting to keep her eyes opened, she didn’t want to prove to her dad that she was getting tired. 

When Tony realized that she was laying down on the recliner he took the chance to get up from the table and went to the fridge. Since she was starting to relax, he decided to seal the deal with making sure she would sleep for the night. He poured the chocolate milk into one of the many, many, many sippy cups that they had laying around the house.

“Hey, JARVIS?” 

_ “Yes, Mister Stark?” _

“Can you dim the lights in the living room?” 

_ “Yes, Mister Stark.” _

Tony rubbed his eye with the back of his hand, he knew that if the lights dimmed that it would help for helping her settle down. From the kitchen, Tony could hear her start to whine again. He made his way back to the living room to see that Manda was drooping over the armrest with her eyes closed, her foot on the end table to rock the chair. 

Since he had her right where he wanted her, Tony sat Manda up so he could sit down next to her. Given that Manda was three-and-a-half, she still held a small grudge against her dad, so when she realized that he was trying to squeeze in on the chair she hopped off and stood in the center of the living room. Her arms were folded over her chest, mimicking her dads earlier pose, but this time she added a pout with it. 

“What are you looking at me like that?” Tony pushed his foot back and forth on the floor, making the chair rock, still holding onto the sippy cup filled with chocolate milk. He grabbed the remote that was on the end table, flipping the TV to the 24/7 Kids Network to help convince Manda to get on the chair with him. “Okay, look. You can either wind down with chocolate milk and cartoons or you can go to your room.” 

Manda looked up at the dark staircase back to Tony who looked comfortable on the chair. She was really, really, really tired at this point. Whatever. She grabbed her  _ Pokemon  _ throw blanket and climbed on Tony’s lap, wedging herself in between the chair and her dad, getting comfortable with her blanket. 

Tony started rocking the chair while Manda was drinking the chocolate milk, her eyes locked on the cartoon that was playing on the TV. It didn’t take long for Manda to pass out in his arms. Tony was about to get off the chair to put his daughter into her bed, but he ended up falling asleep in the chair as well.


	8. First Business Trip

_ June 12, 2004 _

Manda watched her dad rush around her room, packing up small toys and clothes for her for their trip. She had no idea what was going on, but she just watched since she came to realize that her dad did a lot of weird things that she couldn’t understand. She lost interest in watching her dad and went back to coloring in her coloring book. It was her new favorite coloring book filled with animals, it was her favorite because Tony had gotten it for her fourth birthday. 

Tony knelt down behind her, holding her small rain jacket in his hands. “Ready to go, sweetie?” He asked her, rubbing her back.

She looked up at him with a puzzled looked on her face. “Where are we going, Daddy?” She asked, holding her arms out so Tony could put her jacket on her. “Are we gonna see Uncle ‘appy?” 

“Mmm… Kinda. He’s gonna go with us.” He stood up, Manda’s bag behind his shoulder. He held out his hand to his four-year-old daughter, who grabbed it and stood up. “We’re gonna go on a business trip.” 

“Whas’ a business trip?” She asked as they went downstairs. “Are we going bye-bye?”

“We sure are. We’re going to Vegas. That’s in a whole new state, do you know which state Vegas is in?”

“Um…” Manda thought hard, as they had both went over states and their capitals. “Ne… Nevida?” 

Tony chuckled, picking her up as they went outside where it was still raining. “It’s pronounced  _ Nevada.”  _ He put her in her car seat. “But I’ll give you credit for trying.” Tony kissed her forehead before closing the door. While getting into the driver’s seat, Tony took out his phone and called Happy to make sure he was still going.

“I’m ‘wake,” Happy said in a drowsy tone.

“Good morning to you too. We’ll be at the plane in fifthteen minutes, you sure you’re awake?”

“I’m ‘wake,” Happy repeated again. 

“Hope so, Manda is looking forward to seeing you.”

“Are you talking to Uncle ‘appy!” Manda asked loudly from the backseat that Happy could hear her. “I wanna talk to him!”

Tony put his phone on his shoulder, turning around to face Manda while stopped at a right red. “What do you say?”

“Please, Daddy?”

“That was polite, but not what I was looking for.”

Manda let out an over dramatic sigh, kicking her feet up. “Daddy, you’re the coolest and smartest dad ever.”

“Good job.” He handed the phone back to Manda, who was excited to talk to Uncle Happy again. 

“Hi, Uncle ‘appy,” Manda said into the phone. “Are you gonna come with us to the ‘usiness trip?” 

“I sure am. I gotta make sure that you and your dad are okay while traveling.”

“We’ll be okay Uncle ‘appy, because you are strong and can beat up anyone.”

Tony looked at her through the rear view mirror. “What about me? I’m strong too.”

“If you were strong, ‘ow come you need Uncle ‘appy to make sure you’re okay?”

Happy was laughing on the other end of the call. “I’ll talk to you when I see you, okay, kiddo?”

“Okay, Uncle ‘appy. I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

Manda closed the flip phone, fiddling around with the antenna that was on top. Tony turned on his CD player in the center console, playing  _ Brass Monkey  _ by Beastie Boys. Manda smiled real big, as this was her favorite song by her favorite band.

* * *

 

“Whoa…” Manda said under her breath when they arrived at her dad’s private jet. She knew what an airplane was, but she never seen one up close before. “Are we gonna ride in that?” She asked, looking up at Tony who was talking to Uncle Rhodey.

“We sure are.” Tony knelt down next to her so they were at the same level. He pointed up to the side of the jet where it said  _ Stark Industries  _ on it. “What’s that say?” 

“Huh....” she drifted off, staring at the plane. “S...St..ar..k.”

“And altogether?” 

“St..ark. Stark.” She had a huge smile on her face when she was able to read it. “It says Stark.”

“Thaaat’s right.” Tony picked her up, walking up the stairs to the plane. “Y’know what Stark means?”

“It’s… our last name?”

“Yeah, but…” He put her down when they got on the plane, she took a seat next to a window. He sat down in front of her. “Do you know what the word itself means?”

“Nuh-uh,” Manda said flatly, she was more interested of what was outside the window than to Tony’s question. She turned around to face him when he patted her leg to get her attention. 

“It means…” He leaned forward, putting on the seat belt on Manda, “someone who is extremely brave and strong.”

“Am I brave and strong, Daddy?”

Tony leaned back with a smile on his face. “Your last name is Stark, isn’t it?” She nodded. “Then of course you are, and you always will be.”

The plane was about to take off, the rumbling and shaking of the floor scared the hell out of Manda. She looked up at Tony to see what his reaction to this was, to see if she should be scared of the plane. Tony was busy talking with Uncle Rhodey and Uncle Happy, he didn’t seemed to be phased at all about the plane about to take liftoff. If that was the case, Manda did all she could to keep calm about the plane as well, although, it was somewhat hard due to normal childhood anxiety.

Manda squealed out of fear, managing to squirm her way out of the loose fitting seat belt. She quickly scrambled into Tony’s lap, burying his face in his shoulder. She heard him chuckle softly, his hand now running slow circles on her back to try and calm her. 

“Shh…” He tried. “It’s alright, we’re okay. See?” He shifted her in his arms so she was now looking out the window. The ground was now 3,000 feet under them, the clouds were up close and larger than usual. “We’re flying.”

“Flying?” Manda repeated, glued to the window once more. “Whoa! Like a superhero?” 

“Right, like a superhero.” Tony kissed the side of her head.

* * *

 

A two hour plane ride felt like less than thirty minutes to Manda, in fact, she didn’t want it to land. She wanted to keep flying to places and watch the world run under them. She loved being right next to the clouds, seeing all the large towns and cities turn into small mites right under her. She just loved everything about it.

“Ride’s up, kiddo,” Tony announced to Manda, coming up from behind her and lifting her up to sit on his shoulders. She laughed happily when she was on his shoulders, she liked being tall. “Happy, grab the bags.” 

Happy mimicked Tony in a high pitched voice, causing Manda to laugh even harder. 

“Blah blah blah.”

“What time’s the party tonight, boss?” Happy asked Tony in a normal tone, following him outside to the car that was waiting for them. 

“About nine, so we’ll get there at ten.” 

“Ten?” Manda questioned, tangling her fingers through Tony’s hair, “that’s too late, Daddy. You’ll get in trouble, besides, there’s gonna be cake.”

“Cake, huh? What makes you say that?”

“Well, you said it was a party, right?” 

“Not that kinda party.” Tony picked Manda up again, putting her down on the ground. She wobbled a bit due to the plane ride, but held onto Tony’s pants to catch herself. “Easy there, hotshot. Get in the car, chop chop.” 

“Chop chop,” Manda repeated, crawling onto the backseat, “there isn’t a seat for me!” 

“Huh… Well, I guess it’s not that far to the hotel,” Tony said, getting in next to her. “Happy! No speeding, we have precious cargo.”

“Manda?” Happy asked from the driver's seat.

“No. Me.”

* * *

 

Tony and Manda checked into their own hotel room with Happy staying right next door to them. They were on the top floor, the sixth floor, the hotel was a pretty decent size. Manda didn’t understand why they had to stay at the hotel when they have a perfectly good home, since she thought they were actually moving into the place. But once Tony explained it, she was a little more than disappointed. There was something about tall window views that always grabbed her attention. It was most likely due to the fact that she really wanted to fly like a superhero she’d seen on TV.

It was nearing nine, outside the window, Manda could see the party about to start from down the road. It flashed the  _ Stark Industries  _ logo on the front of the building. There were bright lights flashing to get people’s attention, it surely got Manda’s attention. 

While she was looking out the window, Tony was kicking back on the couch watching the news. There were already news reporters on the scene of the reveal party of Stark Industries new weapon. There was a red carpet with hundreds of people standing on either side getting pictures of whoever happened to walk by. There was one face that Tony recognized.

The news reporter managed to take Obadiah Stane aside to have a small interview with him. 

_ “Knowing the fact that Tony Stark hasn’t been able to show up to any of his business meetings and parties for awhile, is he showing up tonight?”  _ The news reporter asked Obadiah. 

_ “Tony will be coming out tonight, yes.”  _

After hearing Obie’s statement, Tony shut off the TV, looking over at Manda who was still fascinated with all the cars and pretty lights going on outside. Well, better get this started. Along with breaking out some bad news.

Tony got on the floor next to Manda. He grabbed her, placing her on his lap to get her full attention. “We gotta talk, kiddo,” he told her. 

“About what?” 

“So, you know how we’re on a business trip, right?” 

“Right.”

“Well… After this one, I’m gonna have to start going on more of them.”

“On the plane?” 

“Yeah, the plane will be involved.” 

“Ooh! I can’t wait to ride it again! When’s the next one?” 

Tony started rubbing her back, knowing that she was going to be upset at the answer. “For you? Not for a long time. You’re gonna have to stay with Uncle Happy while I go to the trips.”

Manda stared at him as if he was talking in some unknown language, but once it all processed through her mind, she frowned. “Then why did I go on this one! I want to go on all of them!” 

“Talk about it later.” 

* * *

Since Manda was still a child, people didn’t expect her to dress up super fancy or anything, but that didn’t stop Tony from making her somewhat presentable. She was wearing a plain black t-shirt, sweatpants, but she refused to put shoes on. It was getting too late to fight with her on it, so Tony let that go just this once. Manda couldn’t stay still in the backseat of the car that Happy was driving them to the party. She was eager to see what the party was going to be like, she assumed it was going to be a children’s party. Y’know, balloons, cake, party hats, the works. She was going to end up disappointed.

The car pulled up to the front of the building, Manda was standing up on her knees on the seat, looking outside. There were bright, flashing lights coming from cameras that seemed to come from all angles. All the lights flickering at once was actually starting to scare Manda a bit, she knew that lights shouldn’t be going around like that all at once. 

She whimpered as Tony scooped her up before they got out of the car. As soon as they stepped out of the car, the crowd who had been taking pictures started cheering loudly, seeing Tony back out in the public eye would be a great marketing for their photos. Tony walked through the picture taking crowd without another thought, he had been used to this kinda treatment since he was around Manda’s age, so he knew how to deal with it.  _ Just walk through it and don’t pay too much attention to it, _ Howard would used to tell Tony during their own events similar to this. That was probably something he should’ve told Manda before they got out here tonight. 

Getting to the stairs of the building seemed to take forever, like the carpet was ever growing, making it longer and longer with each step. Waiting there for them was Obadiah Stane with a smile on his face. He had met Tony’s daughter a couple times before, in fact, he kinda put the name Uncle Obie into Manda’s mind. Even though Tony never introduced him as that, so he went with it. 

“There they are!” He exclaimed, his smile growing larger seeing Manda. “C’mere.” He took Manda from Tony, resting her on his left hip. “Let’s get some pictures before we head inside, sound good?” He asked them, well, mainly Manda. Tony just shrugged, turning back around to face the crowd of people who were just waiting for the chance at this. Manda whined loudly, burying her head in Obie’s shoulder to get away from the lights as much as she could. Oh, what she would give to be back with Tony right now, as she wasn’t overly fond of Obie, but had to deal with it. 

“Lets just get this over with,” Tony announced to Obie, turning back around to go inside with Obie and Manda following after him. 

“What? Already ready for the after-party?” Obadiah asked with a smirk on his face. 

“You bet. I’ve been waiting for a drink.”

As soon as they got to the backstage, an announcer went over the PA, telling everyone to prepare themselves for the upcoming presentation. 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Obie caught Tony by the arm before he went out on stage, “you have a spot on your coat.” He tried dusting it off the best that he could. Besides, looking the part was majority of any presentation. “You’re ready.” 

Manda watched Tony with tears in her eyes. She didn’t want to get left behind while he goes, to her, God knows where. All in all, she didn’t want to stay here with Uncle Obie, he gave her these odd vibes that she was too young to understand. 

“Actually, not ready,” Tony said, quickly scooping up Manda from Obie’s arms, “now I’m ready.” 

He heard Obie starting to protest about taking his daughter out on stage with him, but he was getting himself mentally prepared for this presentation. Walking out on stage, the first thing Manda noticed was the  _ Stark Industries  _ sign being projected on the screen behind them. She pointed up at it to get her dad’s attention, but that’s not what he was focused on at the moment. You could hear some  _ aww _ ’s coming from the crowd when they realized that that was his daughter. 

“Yes, she’s adorable and gonna be a total heartbreaker when she’s older,” was the first thing that Tony said, taking note at all the attention his daughter was getting. “Although, she won’t be allowed to date until after she’s married.” There were some laughs coming from the crowd on that. Tony held out a wireless presentation slider to Manda. “Are you gonna help daddy give his presentation?”

“Yeah!” Manda said with a huge smile on her face. She was about to grab it from him, but he moved it up higher so she couldn’t reach. “Daddy! Give it!” She tried reaching for it, her small fingers could barely brush the bottom of the remote. 

“No pressing the button until I say so, promise?” 

“‘romise!” She grabbed it once it was down at her level. 

There were more  _ aww _ ’s coming from the crowd once again with the exchange between the father and daughter. 

“Getting back on the topic at hand…” Tony shifted Manda onto his other hip, clearing his throat. “The best kinda weapons are the ones that don’t miss,” he finally started, “ever. Go ahead and press it,” he whispered to Manda.

Manda pressed the plus button at the top of the remote, changing the logo of Stark Industries to a demonstration of a 3D attack helicopter, the weapons on the front were highlighted a red color.

“Installing my new AKS-97 missiles on each and every attack helicopter, I can assure you that no matter the target, still or moving, it’ll only take one shot to destroy it.” Tony looked down at Manda, who was fidgeting around with the remote. “If my lovely assistant would press the next button I would show you a lovely demonstration.” 

She pressed the button again, immediately starting the video. Tony took Manda off stage, praising her for her good job and how she was turning out to be a regular Stark. 


	9. Meeting Miss Potts

_ December 13, 2004 _

It was almost nine in the morning, surprisingly Manda was waking up early. Normally she woke up at around noon, a habit that she clearly picked up from her father, but she didn’t go to school yet so it didn’t matter. Waking up late meant that both her and Tony went to bed at around two in the morning, she would stay up late watching him tinker with old cars or making new weapons for the company. Either way, she enjoyed spending time with him. 

Manda had been staring up at the ceiling for a good fifteen minutes, trying to wake up some more before even thinking about getting out of bed. There was one thing for sure: she was  _ not  _ a morning person. She would be grouchy until she had her morning chocolate milk; basically the child equivalent to an adult having coffee.

It seemed to have been a normal morning so far, although, she couldn’t figure out what had woke her up so damn early. The lights haven’t been turned on, JARVIS hasn’t turned off the shaders over her windows to wake her up. What was it? Was she hungry? No. That wasn’t it either… What was it?

Wait… What was that? 

There was a faint, soft voice that was coming from downstairs that she didn’t recognize at all. Sure, she met a lot of different people because of Tony, but she would normally recognize voices, but this was one that she couldn’t put a match to. It was time to investigate. 

Manda pulled the blanket slowly and quietly off of her so she could get out of bed without making too much noise. If Tony was hiding something, or someone, from her, then she wanted to catch it before that happened. Manda got out of her bed, standing on her tiptoes, making her way across the messy room that had toys and clothes scattered all over the floor. It was kinda hard to avoid stepping on all the Legos. Even though Manda was four years old, she knew that one step on a Lego meant a foot amputation. Or, at least, that’s what it felt like. 

Another great advantage of living in a huge, newly constructed mansion, was that you didn’t exactly have to sneak around to make sure you didn’t step on any creaky floorboards. All you really had to worry about was making sure that you didn’t stomp too hard, that was the only reason you would get caught sneaking around. Well, it’s not like Manda has done this before, but she quickly picked up on it in case she did want to. Well, being four years old, she didn’t really have anywhere to sneak out too unless it was the freezer downstairs to get extra ice cream. 

Manda’s door was already opened, so she didn’t have to worry about the clicking and squeaking while getting out of her room. She tiptoed through the hallway to the top of the stairs. From there, she could hear everything that was being said and they had no idea that she was even there. A smirk crossed Manda’s face, she felt like a ninja, or a superhero that could turn invisible.

Sitting on the top step, Manda’s legs were dangling over the edge, her toes barely touching the second step. Holding her breath, she heard her dad and some woman’s voice that she didn’t recognize. It was normal that her dad brought unfamiliar women home with him sometimes, but normally they were gone before she woke up. Normally Tony would bring them upstairs, tell Manda to go to her room for the night, unless she needed something, in that case she had to quickly take care of it then she has to go right back into her room. He wasn’t ever mean about it either, he actually made sure that she was taken care of, had dinner, had a bath, make sure she was read to, then once everything was settled Tony would then have his fun for the night. 

_ “...yeah, her name is Amanda,”  _ she heard Tony tell the woman,  _ “she has this… medical issue…” _

_ “If you don’t mind me asking, Mister Stark, but what kinda medical issue?” _

_ “She…  she’s had kidney failure since birth. It just-” _

_ “Mister Stark,”  _ JARVIS had cut in,  _ “I do believe you have someone eavesdropping.” _

Glancing up the stairs, Tony couldn’t see Manda herself, but he did notice the shadow of her feet hanging down off the edge. “Manda! C’mere!” 

Manda’s eyes went wide. How did he know that she was up there? She didn’t have a clue, but she made her way downstairs, thinking that she was in some major trouble for sneaking around to listen in on them. A small ball of anxiety was building up in her chest, as she didn’t know what her dad was going to do or how he was going to react to this. Was she going to get in trouble? Was she going to get grounded? The possibilities were endless.

“Yes, Daddy?” Manda almost whispered, thinking that he was going to scold her again. Next to Tony sat a tall woman with shoulder length red hair, freckles, and blue eyes who was smiling at her. This wasn’t a normal visit from what Manda could tell, she could feel that her dad was much more relaxed than he normally was when he had women over. “Are you supposed to be my new mom?” 

The woman chuckled softly, looking over at Tony then back to Manda. “No, sweetie. I’m gonna be here to help you and your dad around the house.”

“Her name is Pepper,” Tony said, grabbing Manda and putting her on his lap. “Think she’ll be a good helper?”

“Yeah!” 

“Welcome aboard, Miss Potts.”


	10. Rebuild

Ever since Pepper started to work with the Stark’s she had been at their house a lot for either business purposes, discussions, or just because Tony needed her to come over for a minute to babysit Manda. Whatever the reason was, Pepper didn’t mind it at all. She loved spending time with the Stark’s, especially with Manda. The little girl convinced herself that Pepper was her new mom, not that she’s said that out loud since she knew that that wasn’t true, but she wanted to think that she had some type of mother figure in her life. Even Pepper felt a mother-daughter type bond with Manda, she also would never ever mention it out loud, but it was clear that it was there. 

The morning was peaceful, there weren’t any toys making loud, obnoxious noises, no loud cartoons or video games, and Manda wasn’t screaming just to see how far she could go with annoying Tony. In fact, Tony took this time to read the newspaper out in the dining room, he was waiting for Pepper to come over so he could let her in. She had some paperwork to go over. Tony made his way to the  _ For Sale  _ section in the newspaper, he liked looking through it for fun to see what type of old vintage cars were for sale. Granted he never really found anything worthwhile in that section, but looking once in awhile never hurt anybody. 

He was skimming the page, as he honestly really expecting anything good to be found. However, there was one ad that made him do a double read. A  _ 1932 Ford Flathead Roadster  _ was for sale. Seriously? This person was selling  _ that  _ in a newspaper ad?! The asking price was $54,991. Pocket change.

JARVIS taught himself to open the door for Pepper, so Tony didn’t really need to sit around and wait for her at this point. As soon as he heard that front door open he got up from his seat and walked into the foyer. 

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” he told Pepper as he grabbed his keys.

“Wh- where are you going? I thought you needed me to look at paperwork?”

“I do,” he said as he slid his shoes on, “but there is just something I need to buy ASAP and I will probably hate myself forever if I don’t go out right now and buy it.”

“Wait, what about Manda?” Pepper called out to him as he was half-way out the door.

“She’s sleeping. I’ll be back in about an hour. Make yourself at home.” He slammed the door behind him, leaving a confused Pepper standing in the foyer having no idea what was going on. 

 

Just like clockwork, Tony returned home an almost an hour exactly just like he said. Pepper was sitting on the couch reading a magazine and listening to news. The whole time Tony was out, Manda didn’t make a peep.

“Where did you even go?” Pepper asked him when he walked into the living room. All he did was hold up a new set of keys. “What is that for?” 

“C’mere, I’ll show you.” Tony led Pepper down to the workshop, he hasn’t shown many people his workshop, so showing Pepper who hasn’t been working with them too long was something special. 

“What is all of this?” Pepper couldn’t help but ask when they walked into the workshop.

“This is my garage slash workshop. This is where I keep all my cool toys,” he explained as he kicked a box of scrap metal out of the way. “And also… this!” He ripped the white tarp off of the new/old black  _ 1932 Ford Flathead Roadster.  _ “I just bought it, isn’t it neat!”

“That’s why you were gone for an hour?”

“Uh-huh!” There was a smile on Tony’s face.

“It’s… Tony, this thing is trashed.” 

The smile on his face faded after she said that. “C’mon, it may look trashed-”

“It doesn’t just look trashed, it literally is trashed.”

“-but fixing it up will be a fun challenge.”

“Uh-huh…” 

Tony couldn’t help but roll his eyes at her response. “Psh, whatever. Here, the paperwork is upstairs.” 

After getting Pepper set up with all the paperwork, Tony thought of a great idea. He went upstairs to Manda’s room. Not only did he just buy an awesome vintage car to fix up, he found a new activity that he and Manda could do together.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up!” Tony shouted, shaking Manda’s shoulder.

“Wh-? Wha’s wrong?!” It wasn’t normal for Tony to wake her up in a rush like this. Instead of taking it as excitement, Manda’s four-year-old mind took his raised voice as an emergency since she couldn’t tell the difference.

“I have a new project for us to do.”

“What is it,” Manda asked through a yawn while rubbing her eyes with her small fists. 

“I got us a cool car to fix up.”

“‘Fix up’? What does that mean?”

“Here, I’ll show you.”

Tony picked her up from her  _ The Wiggles Big Red Car  _ toddler bed. Tony didn’t understand the appeal of  _ The Wiggles,  _ it was probably Manda’s favorite because it was a colorful show with a lot of singing. Plus, there was a giant singing dinosaur, so of course that would be something she’s interested in. He couldn’t judge, it was his idea in the first place to let her pick out whichever bed she wanted to transition with. 

The moment they made it to the bottom of the stairs Manda was happy to see Pepper over. Tony set her down on the floor while he went into the kitchen to get her a sippy cup of chocolate milk and a small baggie of dried  _ Lucky Charms _ as her breakfast. 

“What’re you doing?” Manda asked Pepper while she was standing up on her toes to see what was on the table in front of her. 

“Paperwork. What are you doing?” Pepper responded with a smile on her face. 

“Watching you.” 

“What’s on your shirt?” 

Manda looked down at her own shirt as if she had already forgotten what she was wearing. She pulled it forward so there weren’t any wrinkles on it so she could explain it properly. “Is’ my favorite  _ Pokemon  _ pyjama. Thas’  _ Pikachu, Richu, Meowth, Team Rocket, Charmander,  _ Ash, Misty, and Brock,” she explained, pointing everyone out. 

“Don’t ever ask her about  _ Pokemon,” _ Tony said jokingly as he entered the room, “She’ll spend the whole week explaining it to you.”

“I got a new  _ Pokemon  _ game for the  _ Gamecube  _ and dad’s mad that I bet him at it.”

“...Okay. Y’know what, this is now my breakfast.”

“I was kidding!” She held out her hands for her breakfast. “Pleaaaase, Daddy. I’m ‘ungry.”

“Take it then,” he said, handing it over to her before picking her up. “Pepper, we’ll be downstairs if you need us.” 

It was a rare circumstance that Tony would allow Manda to go downstairs in his workshop because of all the tools and scrap metal that was laying around down there and Tony didn’t want her to get hurt. Manda never took that into consideration, all she liked to do was spend time with her dad and watch whatever he was doing. She thought his blueprints were cool to look at. It was nothing that she’s ever seen before, she liked to learn new things and Tony did try to explain why she wasn’t allowed to go downstairs, but she didn’t seem to fully understand what the problem was.

Tony punched in his password on the keypad next to the workshop door then he went inside. He was overly excited to show his daughter how to repair a car just like how his dad showed him how to. That’s one of Tony’s parenting goals; he wanted to outparent his own father, to make sure that Manda would have a better childhood than he did. That’s why he took time off from the public eye, he wanted to make sure that he could spend time with his daughter, to actually have a bond with her. In fact, that was his nightmare; Manda growing up to resent him. 

“Whas’ that?” Manda asked after Tony put her down on the floor, they both walked over to the car that was covered in the tarp. “A ghost?”

Tony couldn’t help but chuckle. “No, not a ghost.” He ripped the tarp off, letting it fall to the floor. “It’s the car I was talking about.” Manda tilted her head to the side. “What? You’re not reacting the way I thought you would react.”

“Whas’ wrong with it? It looks funny.”

“Nothing’s wrong with it, it’s an older car. It doesn’t work so-”

“If it doesn’t work then why do we have it?”

“...so we have to repair it. C’mere.” She stepped forward as Tony placed a car jack underneath the car so they could work on switching the tires out first. “Help me out here.” 

“Okay, Daddy. What do I do?” 

“See this lever on the jack?” Manda nodded. “We’re gonna use it to raise the car up so we can change the tires.”

“Whas’ wrong with the tires?” 

“They’re old and we need to change them.”

Manda put her hand over her dad's hand so she could “help” him jack up the car. Of course, given that she wasn’t really that strong, Tony did most of the work with the jack, but it still showed her how to use it. He grabbed at the four-way lug wrench that was sitting on the tool shelf next to them.

“This is a lug wrench, you use this to take the lug nuts out of the tire of a car.” He pointed at the lug nuts as he explained. “Watch this.” He took the wrench and started to remove two of the lug nuts to show her what he was talking about. “Wanna try?”

“Yeah!” She tried taking the wrench from her dad, but it was way too heavy for her to handle. “Ugh. I can’t do it.”

“You didn’t even do it yet.” He helped her hold it up, putting it over a lug nut. “Okay, now try to turn it.” Manda tried to do what she just watched her dad do, but she couldn’t really turn it on her own. “Want me to help you?”

“No, let me do it.”

“Fine. Fine. Sorry.” 

She was standing in between his legs, staring intensely at the wrench as she was trying to turn it with all the strength that she had in her little body. Manda was starting to lose her patience with it, but that didn’t mean she was giving up on it just yet. With one more try, she pushed down on the wrench as hard as she could, almost falling over as it turned, thankfully Tony was paying attention and grabbed her before she fell face first on the floor. With the newfound confidence, Manda kept turning it until the lug nut fell onto the floor, sending a loud  _ cling  _ through the room. 

“I did it! I did it!” She said happily.

The Stark’s were both busy having fun working on the car that they didn’t even notice that Pepper had let herself into the workshop. Tony only noticed when there was a flash from the camera that he had kept on his desk. 

“Why are you taking pictures?” Tony asked her.

“You said it was her first time helping you repair a car, you’ll be happy to have these someday, Tony.”


	11. Game On

Normally Manda only needed to have one babysitter while Tony was out doing whatever he was doing, but she was lucky enough tonight to have Pepper, Uncle Happy, and Uncle Rhodey over at the house. They all weren’t babysitting, only Pepper was, but Happy and Rhodey were waiting for Tony to get back home. The three of them and Obie were having a poker night. Tony was out at the moment with Obie getting snacks, so Manda had the three of them at once watching her.

Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy were sitting in the living room having a normal conversation, that is, until Manda decided to climb up on the coffee table to get their attention. 

“Ahem!” She grunted overdramatically, putting her hands on her hips. 

“What’s wrong, Manda?” Uncle Rhodey asked her. 

“I wanna play a game.”

“What game?” Uncle Happy asked. 

“Can you guys play  _ Mario Kart  _ with me?” She begged. “Please, please, please, please, please!” 

“What’s  _ Mario Kart _ ?” 

“Is’ a racing game but  _ Nintendo  _ characters. Pleaaaase play with me guys. I keep beating Dad at it and it isn’t fun no more.” 

The three adults exchanged glances with each other then looked back at the four-year-old. Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey agreed that they would play with her. Pepper kept telling Manda that she never played video games before and would probably ruin their fun. Manda started to whine, saying that it wouldn’t ruin the fun, it would just add to the fun. Uncle Rhodey and Uncle Happy actually had to help encourage Pepper to join them, eventually she finally agreed to it.

“Since I’m the one who lives here I get to be Player One,” Manda announced as she turned on the  _ Gamecube _ , sitting in front of the TV with the silver controller in her small hands. The  _ Mario Kart: Double Dash  _ introduction played, showing off the various characters and the various stages that were available to play as. “C’mon, guys.” 

The three adults sat down next to her; Uncle Happy was on her left, Rhodey was on her right with Pepper sitting next to him. They each took a mismatched colored  _ Gamecube  _ controller that didn’t match up with the silver console. 

“Which Player am I?” Uncle Happy asked the child as she was navigating through the menu, pressing on the  _ Four-Player  _ game option, then taking them to the character screen. 

“Uh…” Manda looked at which ports which controller was plugged into. “Uncle Rhodey is Player Two, Pepper is Player Three, and Uncle Happy is Player Four.”

“What? I wanna be Player Two, trade controllers with me, Rhodey,” Uncle Happy said, holding out his controller to Uncle Rhodey.

“No way, you had your chance to pick which one you wanted.” 

Everyone was scrolling through which character they wanted to race as; Manda was  _ Yoshi _ and _ Diddy Kong _ , Uncle Rhodey was  _ Wario  _ and  _ Bowser _ , Pepper was Princess Peach and Daisy, and Uncle Happy was  _ Donkey Kong  _ and  _ Bowser Jr.  _  Manda decided to start everyone off easy, she chose the  _ Mushroom Cup,  _ it has the easiest tracks of the entire game. 

“Wait, which one am I?” Pepper asked Manda as there were four different split screens across the screen. 

“That one,” Manda pointed at the bottom left hand of the screen. 

The timer started to count down for when the race starts.

And they’re off!

Manda, Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey sped off away from the finishing line, leaving Pepper in the dust. She was struggling to learn the controls, she tried watching what everyone else was doing to get an idea. Pepper  _ thought  _ that she was moving, but it turned out that she was looking at the wrong screen and nobody corrected her. 

Manda was just trying to race against them like normal, but it was hard when Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey were getting extremely competitive over this game. They kept purposely bumping into each other on the race track, throwing banana peels and blue shells at each other. Manda couldn’t believe how competitive they were being, she was never this competitive when she played with her dad, then again, he did scold her one time when she was younger that she shouldn’t throw tantrums over losing games since games were meant to be fun and not competitive (but winning never hurt anybody). Pepper kept asking if she was doing it right, but nobody answered since everyone else was so focused on the screen. 

It was an odd outcome for the end of the race; Pepper never even made it to the finish line, Manda made it in third place, Uncle Rhodey made it in second place, and Uncle Happy finished in first place. 

“What?!” Manda cried out when she saw her Uncle’s pass her to the finish line. “How did that happen?!” 

“Good job, Happy, you messed me up!” Rhodey shouted at Happy. 

“You’re just mad that I made it in first place and you didn’t,” Happy retorted. 

“The only reason that you even made it to first place was because you threw a blue shell at me and you know it!” 

Manda and Pepper both looked at each other without saying anything, they thought it was amusing that two grown men were arguing over a video game. 

It wasn’t long before Tony and Obie arrived back at the house, once they walked into the foyer they both heard shouting. They had no idea what was going on, so they made their way to the source of the shouting. In the living room, they saw Rhodey and Happy sitting on the floor with  _ Gamecube  _ controllers in their hands shouting at each other about who should’ve actually won the race with the  _ Mario Kart: Double Dash  _ background music in the background. Pepper and Manda were now sitting on couch, eating popcorn, watching them argue.  

What a good day. 


	12. Fifth Birthday

_ June 6, 2005 _

Today was a big day for Amanda, even though she didn’t really realize the importance. It was just another birthday for Manda, but everyone in her small family saw it as a huge deal; it’s not everyday you turn five-years-old. She had woken up earlier that day to do a dialysis treatment, since those always wore her out afterwards, she decided to take a nice long nap after. That gave Tony and Pepper the perfect time to get everyone over to the house and set up her birthday party. Tony always tried to pick Manda’s current obsession to theme her parties after, toddlerhood was dinosaurs, currently it was  _ Super Mario.  _ It was seriously hard to find Mario party items for children, he mainly had to go online to purchase them, but it worked itself out perfectly.

Just like the past five years, the guests consisted of Tony, Uncle Happy, Uncle Obie, and Uncle Rhodey, but this year Pepper was joining them and many more to come.  Tony was so excited, he knew how much his daughter was going to love this. He wanted to wake Manda up from her nap, but if he did that would give the fact that there was a party away since he never woke her up from her naps. 

Everyone was waiting in the living room, talking quietly, they didn’t want Manda to wake up and hear them speaking, that would ruin the surprise. Although, Pepper did pick up a surprise dinner for Manda that would get cold if Manda kept her nap going on for too much longer. To speed up the process, Tony told JARVIS to have a small alarm to go off in Manda’s room to wake her up. After confirming his decision, JARVIS let a quick, sharp, high pitched alarm in Manda’s room that only lasted not even two seconds.  

Manda’s eyes shot opened, she wasn’t sure what sound she just heard, but it woke her up. She rolled over onto her back, staring up at the ceiling, she was so tired, she wished that her dialysis treatment didn’t make her so exhausted. What day was it? Wasn’t yesterday her birthday? No, she didn’t remember getting presents or cake. Oh! It was still her birthday! It was just her nap time.

She grabbed her new favorite  _ Yoshi  _ plush toy before rolling off the bed, making her way to the hallway. JARVIS announced that Manda was awake and on her way downstairs. Tony turned off the lights, everyone waited for the now five-year-old to come downstairs so they could surprise her. They knew that she was going to love the party. 

Manda held onto the stair railing as she made her way downstairs, holding onto the plush toy tight. Her first instinct was to go into the kitchen to see if either her dad or Pepper were in there doing paperwork. Nope. Nobody was in there. In fact, the house was dark, but since she was only five she didn’t put two and two together. Next, she went into the living room, standing up on her toes to try to reach the light switch, but before she could flip on the lights, JARVIS did it automatically.

“Happy birthday!” Everyone said, Tony blew on a party horn, making a loud sound that startled Manda more than anything. Once her brain processed what happened, a huge smile crossed her face. 

Glancing around the room seeing the Mario themed party, her smile grew bigger. “Wow! This is awesome!” She said, running over to hug Tony. 

“You like it?” Tony asked her. 

“Yeah! I love it!” 

“Y’know what Pepper did for you?”

“What?” Manda looked at Pepper as she was going around the room giving everyone who showed up a hug.  

“She picked you up some Pizza Galaxy on the way here.”

“Whoa! Seriously?! We never get that!” She ran over and hugged Pepper as tight as she could. “Thank you, thank you, Pepper!”

“You’re welcome, hun. Happy birthday.” 

Along with having her favorite pizza place for dinner, Tony also picked up  _ The Incredibles _ for everyone to watch. It was a movie that Manda wanted to see when it was out in the theaters but they never had a chance to go out to see it while it was playing. That had bummed Manda out greatly, but being able to watch it with her family made it worth it now. Everyone sat around the TV watching the movie while eating pizza. Manda’s favorite character was Jack-Jack since his powers were unpredictable and awesome. 

“So… You think that the party is done, Manda?” Uncle Rhodey asked the five-year-old, nudging her with his foot. 

Manda looked at him with a frown. “What? No way! It was just dinner and a movie!”

“That’s all you get when you’re older, didn’t you know that?” Uncle Obie added with a smile on his face. 

“What! That doesn’t seem right!”

“Nope, it’s true. Time for us to leave,” Uncle Happy said with a shrug as he stood up. 

Manda grabbed onto his arm, trying to pull him back to the couch where he was sitting but he was way too strong. No wonder he was Tony’s bodyguard. “Uncle Happy! You’re not leaving yet! What about the cake!” 

“Cake?” Tony asked, picking her up, sitting her on his lap on the recliner chair. “You’re missing the best part. What about the presents?”

“Uh… right. That’s the best part. Give.” 

Tony leaned down next to the recliner chair, picking up a present for her. “This is from Pepper.” She took it from him, ripping open the wrapping paper. 

“Whoa!” Manda said in awe when she saw what the present was. It was a 3D Earth puzzle that had over 500 pieces to it. “This is gonna take forever! I love it!” 

“What do you say?” 

“Thank you, Pepper!” 

She smiled. “You’re welcome.”

The next present that Tony gave to her was a medium sized present. “This is from Uncle Happy.”

“Ooh.” Opening the present, it was a  _ Nite Finder Ex-3 Nerf Gun _ with a pack of 400 foam darts with it. “Oh my God! This is awesome! I never had a  _ Nerf Gun  _ before!”

“I hope you realize what you’ve done, Happy,” Tony pointed out, “she’s gonna shoot at all of us once it’s out of the package.”

Happy smiled. “Why do you think I got her 400 darts?” He held his hand up to Manda, she leaned over and gave him a high-five. 

“Aaand this one is from Uncle Obie.” 

“This one looks weird,” Manda pointed out, she didn’t open it yet, but she was squishing the present around trying to figure out what it was. 

“Open it, Manda-Panda, I think you’re going to love it,” Uncle Obie told her. 

Ripping it open, Manda gasped loudly with the two presents now sitting in her lap from Uncle Obie. The first one was a Beastie Boy album: Licensed to Ill. It was Manda’s favorite album from her favorite band. The other present was  _ Super Mario Sunshine _ for the  _ Nintendo Gamecube.  _

“I’ve been wanting these things for-ever!”

“We have this CD in the workshop,” Tony told her as he took the game box from her to get a look at the back of case. 

“Yeah, but that one is  _ yours _ this one is  _ mine.  _ I’m gonna start my own CD collection.”

“I’m glad you like it, Manda-Panda.” 

“Like it? I  _ love  _ it!” 

“You have two more presents,” Tony said, giving her another one. “That’s from Uncle Rhodey.”

“Where did you get these?!” Manda asked loudly after opening Uncle Rhodey’s present. 

“It wasn’t easy, but I made sure I got them,” he answered with a smile on his face. He knew that his niece would love this gift.

“What is it?” Pepper asked her. 

Manda held up the six set action figure set of  _ Super Mario Bros.  _ action figures. “See, look. This is Peach, Toad,  _ Yoshi, Mario, Luigi,  _ and  _ Bowser. _ ” She pointed them all out to her so she knew what she was talking about. “And they’re really, really, really hard to find.”

“Okay, okay, okay, these presents are cool, but mine will top them all,” Tony said, pulling out his present. 

“I like them all though,” she corrected him as she took his present from his hands. 

“You say that now.”

“Is everything a competition to you, Tony?” Uncle Rhodey asked him with a smirk on his face. 

“Yes.”  

Manda opened the last present that was from her dad to reveal a brand new black  _ Gameboy Advance SP _ with  _ Donkey Kong Country, Pokemon: Ruby, and Mario Kart.  _ “I will never see the sunlight again.” 

“Nailed it.”

“Dad?”

“Yeah?”

She smiled. “Can you open my puzzle? I really wanna do it.”

“The-”

Manda shrugged. “I love everything I got, daddy. But I wanna beat that puzzle.”

“I  _ could  _ open your puzzle. But maybe you can wait until we’re done eating cake?” Her eyes lit up at the sound of cake. 

This birthday was kickass!


	13. First Day of Kindergarten

_ September 6, 2005 _

Since Manda’s fifth birthday party she kept getting told over and over that she would be starting school this year. Manda wasn’t exactly sure was school consisted of until Tony sat her down a month before hand to explain it to her. She would have to sit in a classroom filled with other children her age and they would all be learning together. It wasn’t like Manda was nervous about leaving home for a while to learn things- hell, she loved to learn new things, but the fact that she would have to interact with children her own age made her slightly nervous. Would they have the same interests as her? Would they have the same knowledge of dinosaurs and video games like she did? This was going to be a very interesting experience. 

Tony had set an alarm for Manda to go off at seven in the morning, that was hard for Manda to wake up to, even though for the past week and a half Tony had made sure that she was going to bed before ten and up before ten to get her ready. She still fought the whole bedtime thing, she was used to staying up as late as she wanted to, playing video games and watching TV. Now she would lay in bed staring up at the ceiling with her mind racing about a bunch of different things; why did scientists name them dinosaurs? Would she get taller? Was anyone else aware that something was always touching them no matter where you go? 

So the real question that she asked herself was: was she honestly excited to go to school? The answer would be… kinda. 

 

It was seven in the morning, the alarm had just went off and Manda didn’t know what to do now. Maybe if she just stayed in bed and didn’t make a sound her dad would forget that she had to start school today and let her rest some more. Manda closed her eyes when she heard Tony walking around his room, seriously hoping that he would forget. Please, please, please. There was a knock at her door.

_ Dammit. _

“Manda? You better be awake in there,” Tony told her through the door.

“I’m awake,” she responded, staring up at the ceiling still. 

“You better be downstairs in five minutes for breakfast.”

“Okay.” 

She heard Tony walk down the stairs. Well, guess she really did have to go to school today. Manda didn’t exactly do anything to get ready, all she did was grab the  _ Nerf Gun  _ that Uncle Happy got for her for her birthday and went downstairs to the kitchen. She sat at the table while Tony had his back turned getting her  _ Lucky Charms.  _

Tony turned around to see that she was still in her mismatched pajamas of Jurassic Park pants and  _ Mario  _ shirt that she had worn to bed the night before. 

“That is not happening,” was all he said as he put the bowl of cereal down on the table in front of his daughter.

“What isn’t?” She asked, placing her  _ Nerf Gun _ on the table next to her spoon.

“ _ That  _ isn’t happening either. You can’t wear pajamas or bring toys to school.”

“Why not?” She asked with her mouth full.

“Because it’s against the rules or something.”

“Since when do we care about rules? You said Stark’s don’t have to play by rules.”

“I said that when I threw a blue shell at you in  _ Mario Kart. _ I wasn’t applying that to everyday. When you’re done eating go back upstairs and change and put your toy in your toy box.”

Manda groaned, scooping more cereal into her mouth. What was the point of going to school if you couldn’t even be comfortable while being forced to go. 

After eating, Manda went back up to her room to do exactly what her dad told her to do. She changed into sweatpants, a Bowser t-shirt, and put her shoes on. Then she threw her  _ Nerf Gun  _ into her toy box that was next to her bed. 

“Ready?” Tony asked her as she hopped off the last step. 

“No.”

“Great.” He held out her new dinosaur backpack that they had got a week before. He put a hand on her back, leading her out the door. Before leaving, Manda made sure to say goodbye to JARVIS. 

Tony opened the back door of his car for Manda so she could get in. She hesitated before getting in. 

“Dad? Did you know you’re the smartest person I’ve ever met?” Manda said as soon as Tony got in the driver’s seat.  

“That’s sweet, but you’re still going to school.” Manda grumbled something under her breath. “What’s that?”

“Nothing, Dad.” 

The drive felt both long and way too short for Manda’s liking. She just wanted to stay home with her dad so her dad could teach her new things. She didn’t need school to teach her anything, her dad knew everything about anything. It was the moment when Tony pulled into the school’s parking lot was when Manda realized that she was shaking from being nervous about her first day.

Manda started fake coughing. “Daddy, I don’t feel good. I think I should come back tomorrow.”

“Aw, c’mon, Manda, you’re not scared of your first day, are you?” 

“No! No way! I’m not scared! I’m not feeling well, honest.” Tony reached into the backseat to feel Manda’s forehead to see if she was really, truly wasn’t feeling well. Her forehead wasn’t warm at all. “See?”

“You don’t even have a fever.”

“But-”

“I’ll walk you to your classroom, okay? Would that make you feel better?”

“A little bit…” 

They both got out of the car, Manda was holding onto her backpack tight enough for her knuckles to turn white. Tony had a hand on Manda’s back to both make her feel better, safe, and also to make sure that she won’t run off like she used to do when they were going to the doctors. Manda was quick too, once she was off it was hard to catch her again. Manda moved Tony’s hand, causing Tony think that she was about to run off, but it turned out that she just wanted to hold his hand. 

“Don’t be scared, Manda, everything’ll be okay.” 

“I’m not scared, Daddy.”

She saw all of the crying kids in the hallway, begging for their parents to not leave them there alone. Was she supposed to be  _ that  _ scared? Yeah, Manda was nervous, but she wasn’t terrified like these kids were. 

“Huh…” Manda mumbled, watching all of them. 

“Listen, I promised Pepper that I would get a few pictures of your first day of school since she wasn’t here to see it. C’mere.” Tony knelt down on the floor next to Manda, taking out his cell-phone up so they could take a picture together. Through her fear, Manda sucked it up and smiled with her dad for the picture. Next, Tony took a picture of just Manda who was still smiling. “Looks great, she’ll love these.”

“Great, I hope she’ll love them as much as I do,” Manda said sarcastically. 

“Hey, c’mon, don’t be that way, you’re gonna have fun.”

“Fun? You call this fun?” She motioned towards the crying kids. “This isn’t fun for me!” 

“Calm down, I’ll be back to pick you up at noon.” 

“Noon is so far away from now!”

“Hey, we’ll get lunch with Pepper and Uncle Happy afterwards, okay? Does that sound good?” 

“I guess so…” 

Tony kissed the top of Manda’s head. “Atta girl. Get to class, I’ll be back soon. I love you, Manda.”

“I love you too, Daddy.” 

Manda watched her dad walk down the hallway out the front door where they walked in from. Was this separation anxiety? She didn’t like the feeling of being alone. Manda walked into the classroom that she and Tony stopped in front of. 

Her new teacher, Mrs. Harris, told all the children in her class to have a seat on the carpet in front of the teacher’s chair that was sitting in front of the classroom. The other children that were once crying were starting to settle down to listen to the teacher. She sat down on her chair to look at her new class for the year. 

“Welcome to Kindergarten. I’m excited to start this brand new adventure with all of you this year! I’m Mrs. Harris. First things first; let me show you all around our classroom.” Everyone stood up and followed her around the large classroom. “This is our bookshelf, this is where we will pick books to read during our relaxation time after lunch. This is the water fountain,” she said as she walked over to the small fountain with a sink next to the entrance of the classroom, and next to that is the restroom, you must raise your hand every time you want to use it.”

_ Well, that’s dumb,  _ Manda thought to herself, half-listening to what the teacher has to say about the classroom. 

“We only play with the toys after nap time, or whenever I say it’s okay to.” 

_ Nap time? We’re not babies. _

The class rounded their way to the back of the classroom where there were hooks where the class would put their backpacks and coats. After the children did that, they made their way back to the front of the classroom, sitting on the floor while Mrs. Harris sat in her chair. Next to her chair was a whiteboard where she started writing the days of the week on them, she pulled out a teacher’s pointer with a heart at the end of the stick to point out whatever was on the board. 

“First things first, we will be learning the days of the week. It’s the most important thing we have to learn to know what days we need to show up for school!” 

Mrs. Harris sang them a song that would help them learn the days of the week. A lot of kids were struggling with the song, forgetting what days were when, that made Manda confused. She thought everyone her age knew the months and days of the week, her dad taught her that when she was around two-years-old. She knew that Saturday and Sunday were weekends and that a lot of people had time off of work and school during the weekends. 

After that was done, Mrs.Harris led the class to the many tables that were scattered around the center of the classroom, every table had a number hanging above it to indicate who belonged to which table. Manda belonged with table six (her lucky number, what Pepper says). As soon as they were all settled, the first ‘group table project’ was tell everyone their names, three things about themselves, and what their favorite anime was. 

Manda told her table group her name, what people call her, that she liked video games, dinosaurs, and fixing cars, and her favorite animal was a Dodo Bird. Not a lot of the kids knew what a Dodo Bird was. So that was a bit frustrating. 

For the rest of the day the class sang songs about the week, then they moved on to learning the months, and then started to count up to twenty. It was boring to learn about since Manda learned this from her dad when was two-years-old. She was hoping that she would learn some new things, like more about dinosaurs. This wasn’t fun at all. 

Manda was zoning out so bad that she didn’t even realize that Mrs. Harris had announced that it was noon and it was time for them to go home. She grabbed her backpack, leaving the classroom without saying anything to the other children that she had met today. Tony was standing out there, wearing his traditional sunglasses. She walked up to him, playfully kicking at his leg.

“How was your first day?” Tony asked her, taking her hand as they walked out of the school building. 

“Annoying. Dad, they were teaching us things that I already knew. That’s not fun for me.”

Tony shrugged. “Well, hun, not everyone has parents that want to teach them the basics at a young age.”

“Good thing it’s only for a few hours a day.”

“Well…” Tony opened the back door for her. “I hate to tell you, but you only got out at noon because it was a half-day.”


	14. Field Day

_ May 09, 2006 _

Since the school year was starting to wind down, the school that Manda went to thought that it would be fun to host a field day for the children to get involved with. The school said that there would be prizes for winners, and parents and family could show up to support their children. The only good thing about field day was that they didn’t have to be in school learning boring things that Manda already knew about. Of course, Tony took the advantage to tell everyone what was happening today, and almost everyone showed up to give her support. Well, everyone but Uncle Obie, he was busy with an interview of some kind. At least Uncle Rhodey, Uncle Happy, Pepper and her dad were going to be there. 

“Remember, there is nothing wrong with gloating,” Uncle Happy told Manda who was standing with everyone who showed up for her at the outside baseball bleachers. 

“Do everything you can to win, be a showoff,” Uncle Rhodey added in. 

Tony was sitting there, leaning back with his sunglasses on, sipping lemonade while listening to the conversation that was going on. 

Pepper let out a sigh. “What you  _ should  _ be telling her is: it’s not about winning, it’s about having fun.” 

“Winning  _ is  _ fun!” Manda said with a smile on her face. Tony couldn’t help but snort, that was totally something that he would say. Guess it was true, Manda really does take after him.

“Whoa, careful now, Manda. You’re starting to sound like your dad,” Uncle Rhodey warned jokingly. 

“Ouch,” Tony added in, lowering his sunglasses to look at all of them. “Don’t throw facts at us.” He held up his hand to Manda, who reached over and gave him a high-five. Pepper cleared her throat, getting Tony’s attention, but he was confused. “What?” 

“Give her some  _ good  _ advice,” she said, glaring at Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey who were confused by her statement. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Uncle Happy said with a shrug. 

“Exactly, I thought it was good advice,” Uncle Rhodey added in. 

Pepper groaned so Manda put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, they gave me good advice.” Pepper smiled for a moment. “Yeah, they taught me to kick some ass!”

“Wh-” 

Before Pepper could scold her for swearing, she told them ‘bye!’ before running off to where the other kids were gathering around. The guys were laughing at her comment, but Pepper then scolded them for “encouraging her.” The first event that was happening was to try to kick a soccer ball as far as they could, whoever kicked it the farthest would win this event. 

It was a good thing that Manda’s class wasn’t that big, or else this would’ve taken all day, especially since Manda’s last name was Stark, so she was near the end of the line. A lot of the kids couldn’t kick it very far, some even flopped down on the ground while trying to kick it. There were only two kids who managed to kick the ball into the soccer ball net on the other side of the lawn. 

When it was Manda’s turn to step up, she cracked her neck before stepping up. From behind her, she could hear her family cheering her on, she smirked, suddenly having a lot of confidence and the need to show off. 

“Watch this, I’m gonna make this fly outta the atmosphere,” Manda told her teacher who smiled in return. 

Manda backed up a little bit, her eye on the soccer ball that was laying on the ground in front of her. She kept telling herself that she would make sure that this soccer ball would never want to come back, that’s how hard she was going to kick it. She ran towards the ball as fast as she could, using her right foot to kick the soccer ball as hard as she could. The ball flew a little bit off of the ground as it went straight forward towards the soccer net. Manda watched, hoping that it would go into the net, annnd… almost. It almost went into the net, but not all the way. 

“Good job, Amanda,” her teacher told her, patting her back. 

From behind them, Tony, Pepper, Uncle Happy, and Uncle Rhodey were cheering for her. To everyone else, it was a really good kick because it went farther than most of the other kids, but in Manda’s eyes she failed. She really, really, really wanted to get it into the net. Maybe soccer wasn’t going to be her thing. She grumbled, even after the teacher announced that a kid named John made first place, Alicee made second place, then Manda made third place. That was an accomplishment, but Manda didn’t think it was good enough. 

The teachers and the volunteers were setting up for the next event, so Manda went back over to her family. 

Uncle Rhodey gave her a lemonade when she sat down next to him. “What’s wrong? You made third place, that’s awesome!” 

Manda grumbled again under her breath before taking a long sip of her lemonade. “What did you say?” Tony asked her.

“I said I didn’t do good enough,” Manda repeated.

“What? Yes you did, at least you got into third place. That’s somethin’,” Tony reassured her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.  

“Something is always better than nothing, Manda,” Pepper reminded her. 

Manda was watching the other children in her class interacting with each other, talking, laughing, and engaging in inside jokes that they had made amongst themselves. Manda never really understood anything that they were talking about with each other, and when they did talk about something that she was into; like Pokemon or video games she did try to get involved in conversation, but she gets too in depth and then they start to not understand what she was talking about. No matter how much Manda tried, she couldn’t really stick to making friends. In fact, the only time that the other children wanted her was when they were doing a group quiz and they wanted to be with the smartest kid in the class. It did suck, but Manda did like the attention when she got it from the others in the class. 

Manda’s teacher got on the megaphone, getting the children’s attention that the next event was starting. It was tug-of-war, Manda’s least favorite game in gym class since she wasn’t that strong and can’t really help. Plus, the rope burn most certainly wasn’t a plus to this game. 

“Go on, it’s about to start,” Uncle Happy nudged Manda’s back to get her going. 

Without saying anything, Manda got up, leaving her lemonade behind while jogging to the large rope with the other children. She always had to be in the middle since she wasn’t that strong, she hated being squished in between people, it made her feel scared and closed in. 

The gym teacher blew on the whistle after counting down, telling them to start the game. All the children pulled with all their strength, they wanted to win and would do anything to accomplish their goal. Hell, even Manda tried with everything that she had, she didn’t care that her hands were starting to burn from the thick rope. While playing tug-of-war, you can’t really tell if you’re winning or not until it was too late, well, Manda  _ assumed  _ that they were winning, that is until the kids on the other side of the rope gave one last big tug, causing the other children to topple over on each other. One kid managed to accidentally elbow Manda in the eye on the way down, most likely giving her a black eye. It was odd, it seemed like Manda was the only one who was frustrated over losing, everyone else was laughing and helping each other up. 

Before going back to her family, Manda got herself a small cup of lemonade, it was almost ninety degrees outside, that could play a factor as to why Manda was so frustrated over everything. 

“What happened to your eye?” Tony asked, slight panic in his voice as he leaned over pushing Manda’s face around to get a better look at her right eye after she made her way over to the bleachers. 

“Some idiot elbowed me,” Manda answered, pulling herself away from her dad’s grasp. “I don’t wanna play anymore.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because I keep losing” 

Tony could feel Pepper’s eyes on him, expecting him to say something serious to his daughter. That’s exactly what he did. “Y’know, you only lose when you give up.” Manda thought about what he was saying while gently rubbing her now bruising eye. “Am I wrong?”

“No.”

“I know I’m not, go on. Looks like they’re starting again.” Manda let out a sigh before hopping down off the bleachers. “I love you!” Tony called after her, she turned around with a smile on her face, waving to them before going to do the playgrounds blacktop. 

“Alright, this is a dash game,” the gym teacher explained ot the children that were lined up at the edge of the blacktop, “you all have to run back and forth from one side to the other three times in a row. Whoever finishes first wins. Ready? Set?” He blew the whistle in place of saying ‘go’. 

The kids ran as fast they possibly could to try to win. Manda felt a burst of confidence after thinking about what Tony just told her. She didn’t want to be a loser, she was going to complete this Field Day and at the end of the day she would be a winner. 

It had to be the end of the second lap and Manda was slightly ahead of the kid to her left. She was having a good time until that kid decided to make her slow down would be to trip her. Manda skidded across the hot blacktop, her left knee completely scraped and throbbing. Blood was running down her leg, but she honestly didn’t care about that, it hurt and she felt humiliated and just wanted to get away from everybody. Taking a deep breath, holding back her tears, Manda stood up and made her way off of the blacktop, she walked towards the front of the school building where nobody would be. Tony was confused and didn’t realized what happened, he told the others that he was going to check on her. 

When Tony found her, she was sitting in front of the school on the grass near the road. He saw her scraped knee and sat down next to her. 

“What a dirtbag,” Tony commented, offering Manda another lemonade. She slowly shook her head, refusing the offer. He gently grabbed Manda’s leg, putting it over his lap so he could bandage it up with some bandaids that Pepper had given him before the Field Day started. 

“Ow!” Manda whined, the slight pressure of the bandages caused her whole knee to sting and throb. “That hurts!”

“Well, duh, it’s a huge scrape.” Manda couldn’t help but smile at his sarcasm. Manda moved her leg off of his lap to inspect the dinosaur bandages on her knee while Tony answered his phone that was ringing. “Hello?” He listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. He handed the phone over to Manda. “It’s for you.”

“Hello?” She asked.

“Hey, Manda-Panda! How is your Field Day going?” Uncle Obie asked her in a cheerful tone.

Manda shrugged. “Not good. I made third place in soccer, but some kid gave me a black eye in tug-of-war and then some dirtbag tripped me while we were doing a race and now my knee hurts.”

“Oh you poor thing! You’re right, they do sound like a dirtbag.”

“Yeah, it sucks and I’m sad.”

“Aw, don’t be sad, Manda-Panda. Tell you what, I’ll convince your dad to let you skip the rest of the day and we can all go get ice cream. Does that sound good?” 

Manda’s eyes lit up, a smile crossed her lips. “Yes! Can Uncle Happy and Uncle Rhodey and Pepper go too?”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Thanks, Uncle Obie!”

“You’re welcome. I love you, Manda-Panda.”

“I love you too!” Manda handed the phone back over to her dad. This day was turning around quickly.  


	15. Emergency

_April 19, 2007_

Manda Stark was now seven-years-old and in the second grade. Even though last year she thought she was going to hate school and would do anything to try to get out of it, but after awhile she started warming up to it and making new friends. In fact, her favorite class was gym, even though most of the other kids hated it. She liked it because she never got a chance to run around and play sports at home before, her house didn’t have a backyard or anything like that, so it was the best part of school. Her second favorite was science, just like her father, she was pretty good at science. A chip off the old block, as they say.

It was a normal day at school for Manda; her and her class was currently in art class making watercolor art. Everyone else was making flowers, cars, or superheroes. Although, being that Manda wasn’t like a normal child, she was painting a DNA strain. She liked the shape of it, and overall thought it was super cool.

There was an announcement over the speaker in the room, asking for a student to go down to the office since his mother was there to pick him up. He had been sick all day, and Manda thought it was gross. She hated germs, she hated touching things after someone else had touched it. In fact, she was starting to think that she was starting to get the flu. She was starting to feel dizzy and nauseous, it wasn’t like she was feeling that way before… Maybe she being paranoid about the kid who just left. Manda was doing her best to shake it off and focus back on her watercolor.

It took Manda awhile to realize that her hands were shaking, it was so bad that it was messing up her entire art project. She faced her palm face up to see how shaky she actually was, what the hell was going on? Chills were running through her spine, it felt like she was standing out in the snow without anything to keep her warm. It felt like she was about to vomit, so she raised her hand to get her art teacher's attention who was grading other art projects at her desk.

“Yes, Manda?” Mrs. Lyons said, looking at her.

“I need to g-g-go home,” she said through chattering teeth. “I-I-I-I I don’t feel well.”

Mrs. Lyons rolled her eyes. “You look fine, Amanda. Just because Eric had to go home sick doesn’t mean you have to.”

“But-”

“No buts. Get back to your artwork.” At that, Mrs. Lyons looked back down at her desk and started writing again.

Manda frowned, why did they never believe her? Just because Eric was sick didn’t mean he was the only sick kid in the whole entire school. This wasn’t fair. “Fine… If I vomit on the floor I won’t be the one cleaning it up…” Manda mumbled.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Five minutes have passed and Manda was starting to feel worse. Her stomach was doing flips and her teeth were chattering more and more. She looked up at the clock, they still had four hours until school got out. Maybe she could hold off until her dad picked her up. Maybe she could…

Before she could finish her thought, Manda vomited up all over the floor, it was mostly blood and that made her panic. Everyone, including the teacher, turned around to look at her. She kept staring down at the table, she noticed that her skin was starting to look yellow. Was it always like that? Even though the teacher was standing next to her trying to talk to her, Manda thought she sounded like she was miles away. Suddenly she felt exhausted, like she could just…

Just as the nurse ran into the art room, Manda had passed out, hitting her head on the table. Their regular classroom teacher also ran into the classroom to get the rest of the students out while the nurse was examining her and the art teacher was calling for an ambulance, then giving Tony a call about what was happening.

“She’s freezing…” The nurse noted along with the yellowing skin.

* * *

 

It wasn’t long until the ambulance showed up, they took Manda to the hospital as quick as possible. Tony was on his way to the hospital that they were taking her to, he had no idea what was going on since the art teacher wasn’t that much help to him, but he needed to be there for his daughter. Pepper demanded that she went to, saying that Manda was like a daughter to her, and Tony hesitated, but he decided to let her tag along.

The entire drive to the hospital, Pepper was trying to get Tony to relax. He was too worked up, he was speeding, and he was most likely having an anxiety attack. She asked if he wanted her to drive, but Tony didn’t answer, his mind was racing too much to be able to answer.

At the hospital's Emergency Room, the doctors were quickly trying to find a diagnostic on what was going on with her. They thought that perhaps she could’ve been diabetic and didn’t realize it, but she was a little too young to have diabetes. Along with her cold, yellow skin, she blood pressure was also extreme high. That narrowed it down to quite a few things. Eventually, the nurses had to put an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose due to the fact that her heart rate was starting to drop.

As soon as Tony parked his car, he and Pepper ran inside the hospital and to the front desk.

“Amanda Maria Stark. 06-06-2000. She was just brought in from an ambulance. I’m her dad,” Tony told the receptionist.

It took a second for the receptionist to process what Tony had just said since he was talking so fast and looked like he was going to pass out any minute, but when she realized what was going on, she entered the information into the computer as fast as she could.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t any status update on her yet, but I will let the doctors know that you are here.” As soon as they sat down in the waiting room, the receptionist called the ER to let them know.

It had been roughly thirty minutes since Tony and Pepper had arrived, the entire time Tony couldn’t sit still and Pepper was trying to keep him calm, but nothing was working on him. A doctor came out to talk to them.

“You’re Amanda’s parents?” He asked them as he sat down across from them.

“I’m her dad, this is Pepper, family friend,” Tony corrected.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you both.” The doctor looked down at the chart in his hands. “You are aware of the kidney failure issues that she has, correct?” Tony and Pepper both nodded. “Alright, she’s doing dialysis?”

“Home dialysis.”

“Medication?”

“ _Solystat_ in the powdered form two times a day. Was it her kidneys?”

“Yes, the toxins in her blood were extremely high. We put her on dialysis and that should take care of it. As for the _Solystat,_ we’re gonna up that to four times a day. Clearly she isn’t getting enough medication in her system. We’re lucky she got in when she did. She could’ve… died, if we waited any longer.”

Tony didn’t say anything, what could he say? His daughter almost died today and there was no way he could’ve prevented that. Turns out this public school thing wasn’t going to work out like they had hoped.

The doctor noticed the awkward silence and cleared his throat. “Would you like to go back and see her? Last time I saw her she was starting to come around.”

“Yes,” Tony and Pepper said quickly at the same time.

The doctor motioned them to follow him, he used his ID badge to unlock the ER doors and walked them through it. Every step felt like hours for Tony, he was getting more and more anxious and this went on, even though he knew that his daughter was okay. It was not enough to hear it from a doctor, he needed to see it for himself.

They stopped in front of a room with a closed door, the doctor knocked on the door before entering. Laying in the bed was Manda wearing a white hospital gown with the dialysis machine hooked up to her.

“How ya feeling?” The doctor asked as they walked into the room. “You got some visitors.”

Manda gave a small, weak smile when she saw her dad and Pepper. “Hey, guys.” With that, the doctor announced that if they needed anything there were nurses running around here that could help them before leaving.

Tony made his way across the room, giving Manda a hug as best as he could without pulling any of the cords. They hugged for a minute before letting go, it looked like Tony was about to cry but he was holding it back.

“Don’t be sad, dad. I’m okay, see?” Manda moved her arms ever so slightly upward to show him.

“I’m… I was just worried about you. The school didn’t really tell me much… What happened?”

Manda rolled her eyes dramatically. “I tried telling Mrs. Lyons that I wasn’t feeling well, but since Eric left because he was sick she thought I was just trying to go home early.”

“So she didn’t believe you?”

“Nah-uh.”

“They know you have a medical condition, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

Tony shook his head angrily. “Well, don’t have to worry about it anymore. I’m taking you out of school.”

“For what? The week?”

“No. I mean in general. You’re going to be homeschooled from now on.”

“Whoa! Seriously?! I don’t have to deal with those assholes anymore?!” Tony glared at her for swearing. “I mean… jerks.” She smiled at him, trying to play it innocent.


	16. My First Robot!

_ October 19, 2007 _

Now that Manda was seven-years-old, Tony thought that she was old enough and mature enough to have her own passcode for the workshop. Even though Pepper told Tony that he should reconsider giving her a code, but Tony thought she was worrying too much. Manda was overjoyed with her passcode, she felt like she was important, she also felt like a grown up. The only thing that Tony made her promise was that she wouldn’t forget to do her treatments while down there, to which Manda agreed to. So far she hasn’t broken that promise yet. 

“Leaving early?” Tony asked Pepper. He was sitting in the living room watching TV when he caught Pepper in the corner of his eye. 

Pepper looked down  at the watch on her wrist then back up to Tony. “Not early. In fact, I’m leaving on time for once.”

“Huh…” He stood up. “Let me walk you to the car…”

Pepper couldn’t help but chuckle. “You mean five steps?”

Tony shrugged. “More like six.”

Happy was outside waiting for Pepper so he could drive her home. Tony didn’t like Pepper driving herself to and from his house, so when he could, he made Happy drive her around. At first, Pepper thought that was her boss’ way of controlling her, but when looking at it from his point of view, she realized it was for her own protection.

“See? Six steps,” Tony told her with a smile on his face.

Pepper returned the smile as Tony opened the passenger’s side door for her. Once she got in, she rolled down the window and held out a folder to him. “Give this to Manda. It’s a science project from her workbook.”

“Sure.” He took the folder from her. “Have a good day, Pepper.”

“You too, Mr. Stark.”

Once Tony backed up from the car, Happy took off. Walking back inside, Tony’s curiosity was getting the best of him. He opened the folder to see what the science project was supposed to be. They wanted Manda to make a small working model car; Tony couldn’t help but snort, Manda knew how to rebuild a real car, making a model would be too easy. He would have to up the challenge. 

“Manda!” He called up the stairs. He waited, but there wasn’t an answer. Tony made his way downstairs to the workshop, entering the master code to get in. “Manda,” he said again, seeing his daughter sitting in one of the ventinge cars they recently rebuilt together. “What are you doing?”  

Manda looked up at him with a smirk on her face. “I’m kicking alien butt in my spaceship,” she answered, holding up her  _ Nerf  _ gun. “What are you doing?”

“New work.” Tony dropped the file on the messy work desk. “Chop chop.”

Manda groaned, climbing out of the car. She skimmed the papers on the inside of the folder, causing her to roll her eyes. “Do I have to?” She groaned again. “Dad, I know how to do this already.”

“Kinda. How about we build a robot instead?”

“A robot?!” She exclaimed happily. “Heck yes I wanna build a robot!” Tony couldn’t help but smile at his daughter’s excitement. “Can we do it now? Please, dad, please!”

“Sure, if you want to.”

“Yes! I wanna make a huge, giant robot!” She held her arm up as high as she could to make her point. 

“Well…” Tony started, he hated to burst his daughter’s bubble. “By a ‘huge, giant robot,’ I hope you mean about yay high.” He measured the size by hovering his hand close to the work desk. 

Manda’s smile faded, she folded her arms over her chest. “That’s a little small, dad…” He shrugged. “Can we make it about… yay high?” She held her hand up next to her head.

“Nope.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s gonna be small and simple.”

A part of Manda felt insulted, like he’s making her build a small and simple robot only because she wasn’t “smart enough.” Even though that wasn’t the case at all.

“That’s not fair!” She snapped. “I want it to be a giant one!” 

“No.”

“Why not?!” 

“Because it’ll be too dangerous.” 

Too dangerous? Was that the best excuse he had? Manda thought. 

“Small robots are stupid! I wish I had a normal dad!” 

Hearing Manda say that was like a shot through the heart for Tony. She knew that he was trying his best to be a great father. Hell, he didn’t even have to bring up the robot idea, but he thought it would be a fun new project for them to do. Manda also knew not to disrespectful to him or any adult. He was extremely hurt by this. 

“Oh yeah? How’s this for a ‘normal dad’?” He pointed at the door. “Go to your room,” he said in the strictest voice he could produce.

Manda was shocked, she never heard her dad talk that way to her before. “What?”

“I said go to your room. Now.”

Without saying anything more, Manda walked past him with her head hanging as she made her way upstairs. She regret saying what she said. That was stupid… she knew that he was trying his best to have fun stuff for them to do together, he didn’t  _ have  _ to do anything with her.

Once she was upstairs she closed her bedroom door and crawled onto her bed. Manda tucked her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs as she let some tears roll down her cheeks.  _ Why did I do that? _ Manda thought.  _ Dad’s just trying his best…  _ She let out a sigh, allowing herself to fall backwards so she was staring up at the ceiling. Thinking about having a small robot would actually be cool, it’d be cute even. 

Manda was debating if she should go back downstairs and try to apologize again, but she never heard her dad sound so serious or upset before. In fact, she never been sent to her room before either, so she had no idea when she was allowed to leave. 

Manda sighed again. “JARVIS?”

_ “Yes, Miss Stark?”  _ The AI’s voice rang through the girl’s room.

“Am I a bad person?”

_ “What do you mean?” _

“For what I said to dad. Does that make me a bad person?”

_ “It does not make you a bad person, Miss Stark.” _

“Then why do I feel sad?”

_ “I believe you are feeling guilt.” _

“Guilt…” she repeated. “Remind me what guilt is.”

_ “Guilt is defined as: ‘an emotional experience that occurs when someone believes that they had compromised their own moral standards.’ Do you believe you broke your own moral standard?” _

Manda slowly nodded. “Yeah… I do. I hurt dad’s feelings, for no reason other than because I wanted a bigger robot.”

_ “Do you feel like hurting him with words made you feel better?” _

“No…”

* * *

 

Pepper unlocked the front door of the Stark home, she had made it ten minutes out before she realized that she forgot her phone. She had no idea where she left it though… There was no way she was going home without it though. 

“Tony!” She called out, making her way towards the workshop. She entered her pass code then went downstairs. “Tony?” She tried again. At the bottom of the stairs, Pepper saw Tony sitting at his desk, spinning a pen in between his fingers while lost in thought. “What’s the matter?”

He looked up at her, still spinning the pen. “I didn’t hear you come in,” he mumbled, looking back down at the pen. 

“What’s the matter?” She tried again. Tony shrugged. “You were perfectly fine when I left.” It was silent between them, Tony wasn’t the type of person to open up to people to tell them what’s wrong, especially if it was about Manda. Looking at the desk, Pepper noticed the exact same folder she gave to him that contained Manda’s homework. “Did you give her her homework yet?”

Tony couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah… Didn’t go over too well.”  
“What do you mean?”

He dropped the pen on the table, looking up at Pepper. “I tried upgrading her homework from the model car to a small robot and she wanted to build a bigger one, when I said no she… she said she wished she had a normal dad.” He quickly looked back down at the desk, fidgeting with the pen once more.

Pepper’s eyes went wide in surprise, she couldn’t believe that Manda would say something like that to her father. “Why w- Do you want me to go talk to her?” Tony shrugged, he wasn’t sure what to do about this. “I’ll go talk to her.” She touched Tony’s arm before going back upstairs. 

Once she was at the top of the second flight of stairs of the house, Pepper knocked on Manda’s door, waiting for a response.

No answer.

She tried once more. “Manda?” She called, pressing her ear against the door. On the other end, she could hear sniffling, so she opened the door slowly, just incase Manda was going to shoot a Nerf gun at her. “Manda?” She called again.

The ten-year-old girl was sitting up on her bed again, holding her pillow close to her chest, muffling her sobs. When she heard Pepper, she wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “Oh… Hey, Pepper.” She sniffled again, trying to act like she wasn’t just crying. “You left your phone in the kitchen.”

“Thank you, I was wondering where that was.” She walked across the room, sitting on the edge of Manda’s bed. When Manda looked up at her, Pepper reached up, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. “What happened? Your dad is upset.”

Manda looked at the pillow then sighed. “I… said I wish I had a normal dad… But I didn’t mean it! I love Dad, I don’t want a normal dad…”

“Then why did you say that? That wasn’t nice.”

“Because I was mad…”

“Just because you’re mad doesn’t mean you can say hurtful things to somebody. You know your father is trying his best.”

“I know… Does Dad hate me?”

“Of course not. He loves you no matter what.” Manda moved the pillow next to her, reaching over and gave Pepper a hug. She held the girl tight as she was sniffling again. “It’s okay, hun. It’s gonna be okay. How about you go tell your dad that you’re sorry?”

“Am I allowed to leave my room?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Without saying anything else, Manda climbed out of her bed, making her way downstairs. The entire trip she was trying to figure out what to say. She never really had to apologize before. 

“Dad?” Manda called into the workshop. There was no answer. When she went in further, she saw her dad underneath one of the cars that they rebuilt together. “Hey, Dad? Can I talk to you?” 

Tony rolled out from underneath the car with his mechanics creeper. “I thought I told you to go to your room.”

“Dad… I’m really sorry.”

“Hmm… I don’t think I know what you’re talking about.”

Manda groaned. “I’m really sorry for what I said… I didn’t mean it, I was just upset.”

Tony couldn’t help but crack a small smile. Even though what Manda said earlier did upset him greatly, hearing her apologize so sincerely made him feel better. He sat up, wiping the oil from his hands with an old rag. “C’mere, Scrappy.” Manda had a huge smile on her face as she went into her dad’s outstretched arms. Scrappy was the nickname Tony gave her since she was obsessed with Scooby-Doo, surprisingly, Scrappy was Manda’s favorite character since he was so annoying. 

“Does that mean you accept my apology?” 

“As long as you never say something like that again, then yes, I accept your apology.” Manda nuzzled closer to her father, holding him tight.

“I won’t, I promise. Can we still build a small robot?”

“I don’t see why not,” Tony smiled at her before standing up. “We’re gonna need a few things, Scrappy.”

“Where do we start, Papa Smurf?”

“Old CD door from a computer, a 3.7v Li-Po battery, two 3mm LED lights, a small switch, some iron wires, and pipes from pens.”

Manda smiled again, feeling overjoyed that her dad accepted her apology, but she was more so excited that they were going to build something new together. She sprinted over to the large “tool” box, digging around all the junk that was in there. Every time that either Tony or Manda found something that could potentially be used as a part, they’d tuck it in their “tool box.” Pepper would call it the “junk box” since there was literally anything you could think of in it. Computer parts, headphones, soda can tabs, empty medicine bottles, wires, etc. 

Since, yes, technically  _ was  _ a junk box, Manda was having a hard time finding things that she needed. Although, if she needed shoelaces she knew the first place to look now. Manda collected the loose pens and the PC CD door that were collecting dust in the box, well, at least it was going to have a purpose now. While she found those, Tony got the 3mm LED lights and the wires that he kept in his more organized part box. On the desk, there was already a battery and a small switch. They were ready. 

Tony shoved everything that wasn’t important from his desk to the floor so they could have more space to build their robot. They dropped the supplies down on the sides so they still had enough space in front of them. The first thing Tony did was grab his screwdriver, tearing apart the PC CD drawer while Manda was literally hanging over his shoulder so she could see what he was doing. He pulled out the mechanism, as that was the only real part they needed from it.

“Now what?” Manda asked.

“Hold on, hold on,” he answered as he pulled out the pulley, rubber band, and the large gear that was still attached to it. “Take this, and this.” He put the large gear and some wire in her hand. “Put that through the gear and glue it together.”

He plugged in the hot glue gun while she was doing that, then he took the refill pipes from the pens and cut them up into small pieces. 

“Done!” She exclaimed proudly, holding up the gear and wire to her dad. “Now what?”

Tony took it from her. “Now we attach the refills to the gear,” he explained as he did it. He worked the wire through the hole where the large gear originally came from, gluing the other small pen refill to the other side. 

Manda watched as her dad took out a pair of pliers, bending each side of the wire back oppositely, it looked like pedals on a bike now. Tony cut off the extra lengths so it really looked like pedals now. 

“Watch,” Tony said, holding up a new, straight piece of wire. Using the pliers, he made a small loop in the center of the wire, then at the end, he curved it around to look like the top of a sewing needle. “And now you do it.” He handed her a fresh wire and a smaller pair of pliers.

The young girl was trying her best to mimic what she just watched her dad do, but she wasn’t confident that she was doing it the same way… Everything had the be equal to her dad’s. Always. If it wasn’t she’d feel inadequate, almost as if she was doing something wrong. She dropped the pliers on the floor while trying to loop the wire around itself, and she was clearly getting frustrated.

“I can’t do it!” She whined, throwing the tool back on the desk. 

“What do you mean you can’t do it? You almost had it done.”

“Huh?”

“You dropped it because of the way you’re holding it.” Tony handed the pliers back to his daughter before showing her the correct way to hold them. “Try now.”

Manda couldn’t believe that it wasn’t working purely because she was holding it wrong, but, hey, if her dad thought she should try again then she will. While she was doing that, Tony put the now empty pen through the largest hole of the PC CD door so the wires had something to hook onto. 

“I did it!” Manda cried happily, holding it up to her dad. “And now?”

“Now…” He hooked the wires on either side of the empty pen, bending them back like pedals as well. “We make the feet.”

“The feet,” Manda repeated, watching her dad take more wire and looping it in the middle before bending it into a U shape. “Alright, I can do that.” She took the other wire, looping it perfectly like Tony did. “Tada!”

Tony connected one foot around the wires, securing it with a screw then allowed Manda to copy what he just did. Now, Tony finished it up with the battery and wiring while adding LED lights for the eyes. No doubt, Manda could probably do it, but he didn’t want to risk her getting electrocuted. At the base of the robot, he added the small switch.

Finished.

Tony held it up to her. “Ready to try out your new robot pal?”

“Yes!” She tried to snatch it from him, but he held it up higher so she couldn’t reach it. “Dad! Please!”

“What’re you gonna name it?”

“I dunno, I’d have to try it first.”

Tony smiled, giving it to her. “Fair enough. Try it out.”

They both got down on the floor to watch it go. Manda flipped the small switch, the LED eyes glowed purple before waddling along the floor on its weird wired legs. Manda and Tony had a huge smile on their faces, she climbed into her dad’s lap, still watching it. 

The Stark’s were so busy watching the robot waddle that they didn’t even notice Pepper standing there. She took a picture of them smiling at the robot. It was a good picture of the two.

“Pepper…” Manda whined, she knew how much she didn’t like pictures. She climbed off Tony’s lap, picking up the robot after switching it off. “Isn’t it kickass?!” She held it up to Pepper who chuckled and smiled. “It’s awesome!”

“What do you tell your dad?” Pepper whispered to her.

Manda turned around to face her dad who was sitting at his desk again. “Thank you, dad! This is the best robot ever! I’m gonna name him… Enthusiasm!”

“‘Enthusiasm’?” Tony questioned, raising an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because, when he waddles it’s like he’s trying his best to get somewhere. Dad, you’re the best dad in the entire world!”

 


	17. Pizza Night

_ April 8, 2008 _

It was 7:00 pm on Tuesday, Pepper didn’t show up for work today as she had the flu and didn’t want to pass it on to either Tony or Manda. Which meant that the Stark’s had to fight for their own food tonight. It was odd, normally Pepper would bring them all something to eat. Hell, Tony couldn’t remember the last time that he made food Manda, like, actual food, not just snacks. It was probably… never. 

When Tony walked into the kitchen, the first thing he saw was Manda standing on the kitchen counter where they kept the canned food. She had went through all the cabinets trying to find something to eat. She was throwing cans of food that she didn’t want over her shoulder. 

“Nope… Nah… Nope…” She said to herself, having no idea that her dad was in the room. 

Tony folded his arms over his chest. “Manda!” He said loudly, causing Manda to scream loudly in surprised, she turned to face her dad. “What are you doing?”

“I’m hungry!” She whined. “Feed me!”

“Spaghetti?”

“No.”

“Lasagna?”

“Nope.”

“Well, that’s good. I dunno how to make those things anyways.”

“Pizza?”

“Pizza!” Tony held his arms out to his daughter, then she hopped into them. “That’s something easy we can make.”

“ _ We?  _ Dad, you can’t cook.”

“You technically don’t cook pizza, you bake it.”

Manda rolled her eyes as her feet were placed on the tile floor. “You knew what I meant, dad. You don’t have to be a smartass.” Tony gave her a light smack upside the head for swearing. “Ow!”

“That didn’t even hurt.” He reached up in the same cabinet that she was just digging through, taking out a box of premade pizza dough and a can of pizza sauce. “Besides, how hard can it be?” 

Before Manda could answer, Tony’s cell phone started to ring out in the living room where it was charging. Without even asking, Manda ran into the living room to answer it.

“Uncle Obie!” Manda answered after reading the called ID. 

“Manda-Panda!” Uncle Obie responded. “How are you doin’, sweetie?”

“Good! Dad’s trying to co- bake pizza.”

Obie snorted. “ _ Your  _ dad?  _ Cook?  _ That’s something I’d like to see.”

Manda thought about it for a moment before smiling to herself. “Ooh! Uncle Obie, you should come over for dinner!”

“Did you ask your dad?”

She paused again, thinking about it. “Hold on.” She moved the phone away from her ear. “Dad! Uncle Obie’s coming over for dinner!” She put the phone back up to her ear. “Yeah, I did.”

“Telling your dad and asking him aren’t the same thing.”

Manda frowned. “Pleaaase, Uncle Obie?”

“Oh alright…” 

“Yes! ...uhhuh… Okay. Love you too.” Manda hung up before sprinting back into the kitchen. Tony was covered in dough from his arms up to this face. “What happened to you?”

“I was trying to do that cool spinning thing when you toss the dough up in the air and then catch it, but…” he trailed off, wiping some of the dough off from his cheek. “Anyways… you said Uncle Obie’s coming over?”

“Uhhuh! He said he wanted to watch you cook.”

“Bake.”

Manda frowned again. “Uncle Obie said cook.”

“Does this look round?” He held up the flattened pizza dough he tried molding just moments ago.

Manda tilted her head to the side to get a better look at it. “It looks square.”

“Shut up.”

* * *

As a standard protocol, JARVIS allowed Obie in the house without alerting Tony or Manda about it. Obie wasn’t surprised that the house was so quiet, as it normally was, but he had expected Manda to have jumped out and shoot her  _ Nerf  _ gun at him by now. He stood in the front entrance room, listening for any sounds, but there weren’t any. He moved into the kitchen to see both Tony and Manda crouching in front of the oven with the light on from the inside to watch the food bake.

“Is it working?” Manda asked her dad as they were both staring in through the glass. 

Tony shrugged. “I dunno… I never baked before.”

Obie rolled his eyes, he had a feeling that them baking wasn’t going to go down well. He walked over to them, reached over and turned the temperature on the oven from 250 degrees to 400 degrees. Tony and Manda jumped as they had no idea that Obie was even there. 

“The temp was too low, so, no, Manda. It wasn’t working.”

“Uncle Obie!” Manda said happily, she hopped up and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. 

“I was surprised you weren’t hiding behind the couch.”

“Yeah… I actually lost the majority of my darts…”

“You did?”

“Shocker…” Tony said sarcastically as he stood up. “What is it that Pepper and I tell you? Oh, right… pick them up.”

“You’re the one who kicks them around!”

“Easy, easy.” He grabbed a washcloth off from the counter, cleaning the sauce off from his niece’s face. “It just so happens I brought you something, Manda-Panda.”

“A present?! You brought me a present!”

“Does she really need more stuff?” Tony asked Obie, watching him grab a large box that was wrapped up in shiny wrapping paper.

“Yes I do!” She ripped opened the wrapping paper to reveal a  _ Nerf Vulcan  _ with 300 darts included. 

Manda was literally speechless, this was literally the best  _ Nerf  _ gun ever created. And with 300 darts? She was gonna have a blast with this. 

“What do you say?” Tony reminded her.

“Thank you so much, Uncle Obie!”

“Ah, you’re welcome, Manda-Panda. How about you go set it up in the living room.”

“Okay!” Manda didn’t waste anytime pushing the heavy box into the living room, leaving her dad and Uncle in the kitchen. 

“Are you prepared for the Apogee Award next month?” Obie asked him as he was cleaning up the mess that he and Manda made.

“It’s just another award, do I really gotta-”

“Yes, Tony. Everyone is expecting you there, especially Colonel Rhodes.”

Tony’s eyes lit up. “Rhodey’s gonna be there?” Obie nodded. “I’ll be there.”

As soon as Tony took a sip of his whiskey, they both heard Manda call for them from the living room. “Check this out!” The men looked at each other, knowing that there was a high chance she was going to bombard them with darks. “Dad! C’mere!” Manda called again when they didn’t respond. 

When they entered the room, as they predicted, Manda used her new automated  _ Nerf  _ gun to shower them in bullets. She was laughing while her dad and Uncle were scrambling to get out of the way. This was her second favorite  _ Nerf  _ gun. Her very first one that she was given to her a gift from Uncle Happy for his sixth birthday would always be her favorite treasure. 

“That’s enough! That’s enough!” Uncle Obie called. “The pizza is done.”

Manda popped up from behind the large toy gun. “Done?”

“Done.”

* * *

Between the three of them, Tony and Manda ate the most. They had all sat on the couch together, watching a movie as they ate. The only thing Manda wished was different about this moment was that she wanted Pepper, Uncle Happy, and Uncle Rhodey to be here with them. The entire time they were eating, Uncle Obie was trying to talk to her dad about some trip happening next month, but knowing that it was a business trip made Manda tune it out because she never went on those often. Until. 

“Are you excited, Manda-Panda?” Uncle Obie asked her. 

“Huh? About the  _ Vulcan?  _ Yeah! I can’t wait to use it on Pepper.”

“Don’t use it on Pepper… Unless I’m there to witness it,” Tony told her. 

“I’m talking about the trip.”

“The trip? I’m going?”

“Of course you are. Wouldn’t be the same without you there, Scrappy.”


	18. Apogee Award

_ May 2,2008 _

_ Tony Stark. Visionary. Genius. American patriot. Even from an early age, the son of legendary weapons developer Howard Stark quickly stole the spotlight with his brilliant and unique mind. At age four, he build his first circuit board. At age six, his first engine. And at 17, he graduated summa cum laude from MIT. Then, the passing of a titan. Howard Stark’s lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder, until at age 21, the prodigal son returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries. With the keys to the kingdom, Tony ushers in a new era for his father’s legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, satellite targeting. Today, Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe.  _

After the small introduction on Tony’s part, everyone in the room gave a round of applause. The screens changed from old pictures, articles, and demonstrations of old technology to the Stark Industries logo. In the front of the room sat Amanda Stark and Uncle Obadiah Stane while Uncle Rhodey walked up on stage to start his speech. When the spotlight shined on him, the applause died down so they could hear what he had to say.

_ “As liaison to Stark Industries, I’ve had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot,”  _ Uncle Rhodey started saying,  _ “He is my friend…” _

Uncle Obie leaned over to Manda so she could hear him whispering to her. “Where is your dad at?”

“I have no idea…” Manda whispered back while still looking up at Uncle Rhodey.

_ “...and he is my great mentor…” _

“Clearly he’s not here. Your turn to go get the award.”

“No way, it’s your turn.”

_ “...Ladies and Gentlemen…” _

As quickly as they possibly could, Manda and Uncle Obie did a quick rock-paper-scissors to decide who was going to go up there to take the award this time. 

_ “...it is my honor to present this year’s Apogee Award…” _

Manda chose Rock while Obie chose Paper, meaning that she lost and had to be the one to go up there to make a speech on his behalf. Wonderful… She  _ always  _ loved doing her dad’s dirty work.  

_ “...to Mr. Tony Stark.”  _

Everyone started clapping again, waiting for Tony who clearly wasn’t there to accept it. 

_ “Tony?” _ Uncle Rhodey called out since he didn’t seem him. 

“Well shit…” Manda muttered under her breath before standing up to accept the award for him. It felt slightly awkward for her going up there, not the whole ‘there are hundreds of eyes on me’ kinda thing, no, she was used to that by now. But the whole ‘I’m not dressed for this kinda shit.’ As she was wearing probably the nicest jeans she could find a black t-shirt. “Thanks, Uncle Rh- Thanks, Colonel,” Manda said when getting up on the stage, taking the shiny award from him.

“Thanks for the save,” he said quietly to her in return. 

Manda literally had to stand on her toes to see over the podium at the hundreds of people that were looking up at her with confusion on their faces. “Thanks for this, it’s really… nice,” she told the audience awkwardly as she held it up, looking at it. When the applause died down once again, she gave a nervous chuckle. “Well, I hope you don’t think a seven-year-old is Tony Stark.” The audience chuckled at that, if there was one thing Manda could do was being able to talk her way through almost anything. “But, if I were my dad, I would assure you that I  _ would  _ be here tonight to take the award from himself. He’d also feel pretty honored to have an award as… shiny as this. The thing about my dad not being here is because he’s soo busy with other work. But, hey, I’ll be happy to hang this up in my bedroom since he doesn’t want it.” 

The audience applauded one more time as Manda gave her final thank you’s and walked down off the stage. While everyone was clearing the room, Uncle Obie was waiting for her, saying how she nailed the speech and was probably something that Tony would say too. She had smiled nervously at that before saying she was going to find her dad. And knowing him, he was most likely going to be gambling at the casino portion of this building. 

Stilling holding onto the award, Manda made through the large groups of people who were standing around chatting. She was going to tear her dad a new one for making her take his award and speech. Standing outside the boundary line for the lobby to the casino, Manda saw a large group of people standing around one of the gambling attractions. No doubt that her dad was there. 

As soon as she took just one little step outside the boundary, one of the security guards put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. 

“Sorry, kid, you can’t go in there. You have to be twenty-one.”

As soon as Manda opened her mouth to speak, Uncle Rhodey cut her off from behind. “She’s going in there with me and we’re just looking for her dad.” The security guard looked like he was about to protest, but seeing all of Uncle Rhodey’s medals and badges made him change his mind, saying that they have ten minutes before Manda had to get out of the casino. “You did good on the speech,” Uncle Rhodey told Manda as they were walking towards the large group of people.

“Eh, I was just winging it.”

_ “Work it! C’mon!”  _ They heard Tony’s voice echo through the room with the group cheering and clapping. 

Rhodey pushed through the crowd with Manda behind him, cutting off the short conversation between Tony and some woman. “You are unbelievable,” he scolded at him as if he were a child.

“Oh, no. Did they rope you into this?” Tony asked him with a smirk on his face.

“Nobody roped me into anything!” 

When Tony saw Manda standing next to him all he could say was: “I’m so sorry.”

“But they told me that if I presented you with an award, you’d be deeply honored.”

“Of course I’d be deeply honored. And it’s you, that’s great. I’m sure Manda’s pretty honored too. Lemme see that.” He took the award from his daughter to get a better look at it. “I’m so sorry, kiddo.”

Manda shrugged. “Yeah, it’s okay, y’know,  _ I  _ had to be the one to take your speech.” 

“Wow! Would you look at that?” He held up the award to get a better look. “You took my speech, you get to keep it. Here you go.” He handed it back down to Manda who was honestly so annoyed by all this crap that he kept doing. After that, he pushed some chips on the table around and picked up some dice. “Here, give me a hand.” He held up the pair of dice to Manda to blow on them for good luck. “You too,” Tony said, holding them back to Rhodey.

“I don’t blow on a man’s dice,” he answered, clearly not happy with him either. 

“C’mon, honey bear.” Rhodey smacked the dice out of Tony’s hand, they bounced onto the table. “There it is. Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes rolls! And…” 

Manda had no idea what happened to the dice or where they rolled, but apparently it wasn’t good. 

“That’s what happens,” Rhodey told Tony. 

“Worse things have happened. I think we’re gonna be fine. Color me up, William.” 

“Dad, can we just go home now?” Manda hissed at him. 

“Party’s over everyone, gotta take the kid home for her bedtime.”

“Oh, you are just a d-” 

Rhodey put a hand on her back, cutting her off before she said anything that she would regret later on. They walked through the lobby, Tony was trying to make some kind of conversation with her but Manda wasn’t biting. 

“This is where I make my exit,” Rhodey told them. “Tomorrow, don’t be late,” he told Tony. “Manda, I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yeah, you can count on it,” Tony told him.

“I’m serious!” 

“I know, I know!” Tony put a hand on Manda’s back as they went outside to get into the car that Happy pulled up to the front of the building. Happy had opened the door for them so they could get into the car when someone was calling after Tony. 

“Mr. Stark! Excuse me, Mr. Stark!” The woman called after him. Two other security guards stopped her from coming any closer than what she already was. “Christine Everhart,  _ Vanity Fair  _ magazine. Can I ask you a couple of questions?”

“She’s cute,” Happy whispered to him.

“She’s alright?” He turned around to face her. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

“Yeah. Okay, go.”

“You’ve been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?”

“Absolutely ridiculous. I don’t paint.”

“And what do you say to your other nickname? ‘The Merchant of Death’?” 

“That’s not bad. Let me guess. Berkeley?”

“Brown, actually.”

“Well… Ms. Brown, it’s an imperfect world, but it’s the only one we’ve got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I’ll start making brice and beams for baby hospitals.”

“You rehearse that much?”

“Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime.”

“I can see that.”

“I’d like to show you first-hand.” 

“All I want is a serious answer.”

“Okay, here’s serious. My old man had a philosophy, ‘Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy.’” 

“That’s a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks.”

“My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero.”

“And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering.”

“Tell me,” Tony took off his sunglasses, “do you plan to report on the millions we’ve saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding, honey.”

“Wow… You ever lose an hour of your sleep at night?”

“I’d be prepared to lose a few with you.”

Manda rolled her eyes and got in the front seat of the car. She was mentally counting down to when her dad would turn this conversation into a complete 180. So far, it was a new record. God, she was so sick of her dad’s ‘nightly routine.’


	19. Losing a Piece of you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we go.

It was 6:51 a.m. the next morning when JARVIS had to wake her up to do a home dialysis treatment. It was too damn early for this, but she had Pepper tell her time and time again that she needed to do it or else she would end up in the hospital. Again. For the fourth time that she ‘forgot’ to do her in home treatment. It was lame to have to do dialysis so often, but it was better to do it at home than to go to the doctor’s office each time to have it done. 

Manda grabbed her Jurassic Park blanket, wrapped it around herself, then went downstairs where her dialysis treatment was set up at. It was in the living room right in front of the TV so she had something to do at least while it was going on. Each treatment took about four hours or so to complete, so Tony made sure that she had something to do. It was just so hard for Manda to stay still in one place to get these treatments done, but it was worth it in the end. 

She’s done this treatment enough times to the point where she could set the treatment up on her own. It clearly wasn’t recommended that she’d do it on her own, but when she had to she had to. Manda threw the blanket over her legs after getting settled at the end of the couch where the machine was located, first she made sure she had everything that she needed, because once the machine was on there was no way to stop it until the four hours were up. Inconvenient at most times. Manda wasn’t quite sure what all these needles actually did or what they were called, all she knew was where they had to be placed. She stuck the two needles into her forearm, making sure they were inside the veins before turning the machine on. The machine made a  _ wrrrling  _ noise, meaning that it was all working correcting. The TV was playing her favorite cartoon, so now, all Manda had to do was sit back and relax for the next four hours. 

Manda had her eyes shut for about three hours when she heard someone calling out for her dad. 

_ “Tony?”  _ She heard the woman from last night call out.  _ “Hey, Tony?”  _

It appeared that she didn’t notice Manda in the living room as she was too busy wondering around the house to find out where Tony went. An mischief smirk crossed Manda’s face. Next to her dialysis machine was a small coffee table, and on said coffee table was a plastic straw and a pack of gum. Manda took a piece of gum, chewed it for a few seconds, took the straw, placed the chewed up gum inside the straw and was trying to aim it perfectly at the woman who was still wandering around. 

While the lady was busy looking at the control panel that was on the wall, Manda blew as hard as she could into the straw, sending the stray chewed up gum flying through the air. The woman yelped in surprised when she felt something sticky in her hair. Finally, she saw Manda sitting on the couch staring at her and suddenly felt a little creeped out. 

“You won’t be able to get in there,” was all that Manda said. 

The woman walked further into the living room, looking carefully at the machine that Manda was hooked up to. “You’re Tony’s daughter, right?” She asked.

Manda shrugged. “Nope, I’m just some random kid that wandered in here and never left,” she answered sarcastically, causing the woman to frown. “Yeah, I am.”

“What is tha-” 

“Hello,” Pepper called from behind her. She was holding fresh clean laundry over her arms. “I’ve got your clothes here. They’ve been dry-cleaned and pressed, and there’s a car waiting for you outside that will take you anywhere you’d like to go.”

She turned around, her focus was now on Pepper which made Manda feel a bit better as she didn’t like people on the outside to know about her condition. “You must be the famous Pepper Potts.”

“Indeed I am.” She handed the clothes over to her.

“After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the dry-cleaning.”

At first, Pepper was at lost for words, but quickly composed herself. “I do anything and everything that the Stark’s require, including, occasionally, taking out the trash. Will that be all?” 

* * *

Pepper went down stairs to Tony’s garage after the woman had left. Manda wanted to go with her, but since her treatment wasn’t done yet, Pepper made her stay upstairs to finish it. Something that was just as dangerous as skipping a dialysis treatment was to cut one off extremely early, and Pepper sure as hell didn’t want to call another ambulance for the same reason. 

As Pepper was unlocking the garage door with her passcode, Manda had called Tony so she wasn’t going to be left out on the conversation that was about to go down. And judging by Pepper’s mood today she wasn’t happy with Tony at all. 

_ “Dad, when are we gonna get a new car to fix up?”  _ Manda asked from the other end of the line that was playing over speaker.

“When we get money to, sweetie.” Tony couldn’t help but smile to himself because he knew that that answer always pissed Manda off because they both knew that money wasn’t an issue. At all. 

_ “That stopped being funny when I was five, Dad.”  _

Tony shrugged to himself as he looked up at the screen that JARVIS was showing a diagram. “It’s still kinda funny.” 

“Give me exploded view,” Tony told JARVIS while Manda was still on the phone with him. “Hold on, hun.” He muted her call while JARVIS started to explain something to him.

_ “The compression in cylinder three appears to be low.” _

“Log that.” He unmuted Manda’s call after that. 

_ “Are you building without me?!”  _ She demanded. 

There was a slight pause on Tony’s end. “...No.” 

Pepper unlocked the garage door, turning down Tony’s music while she was talking to someone on the phone. “I’m gonna try again, right now,” she told whoever she was talking to.

“Please don’t turn down my music,” Tony said, not really paying her any attention. 

“I’ll keep you posted.” She hung up, walking up behind Tony with a frown on her face. “You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now,” she scolded him. 

“How’d she take it?”

“Like a champ.”

_ “Like a little bitch,”  _ Manda added on her end.

“Normally I’d ground you for that kinda language, but I couldn’t care less right now,” he said to his daughter as he held up a part to get a better look at it. “Why are you trying to hustle me out of here?” He asked Pepper, putting the part back down on the work table. 

“Your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago.”

“That’s funny, I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me to get there.”

“Tony, I need to speak to you about a couple things before I get you out of the door.”

_ “Okay, sorry to interrupt you, Pepper. But doesn’t that kinda defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane? It shouldn’t leave before you arrive,”  _ Manda added as she was listening in to the whole conversation. 

“Larry called. He’s got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. Do you want it? Yes or no.”

“Is it a good representation of his spring period?”

“No. The Springs was actually the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked, not ‘spring’ like the season.”

“So?

“I think it’s a fair example. I think it’s incredibly overpriced.”

“I need it. Buy it. Store it.” Tony got up from his workbench, taking the phone with Manda’s call still going through with him. 

“Oookay… The MIT commencement speech…”

“Is in June. Please, don’t harangue me about stuff that’s way, way, down…”

“Well… They’re haranguing me, so I’m gonna say yes.”

_ “Is ‘haranguing’ even a word?”  _

“Deflect it and absorb it. Don’t transmit it back to me.” 

_ “Just-just say it slowly, okay? Ha-rang-uing. Isn’t that just a funny word to say?”  _

“I need you to sign this before you get on the plane.” 

“What are you trying to get rid of me for? What, you got plans?” 

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“I don’t like it when you have plans.” 

_ “Pepper can’t have plans. This is literally all her plans all day every day.”  _

“I’m allowed to have plans on my birthday.”

“It’s your birthday?” 

_ “Totally unrelated to what you said, Pepper. But I meant to say happy birthday to you while you were upstairs because I totally remembered.” _

Pepper couldn’t help but smile at Manda’s comment. “Thank you, Manda. That’s sweet.” 

“Well, I knew that too. Already?” 

“Yeah, isn’t that strange? It’s the same day as last year.”

_ “Oooh!”  _

Tony hung up on his daughter. “Get yourself something nice from me.”

“I already did. It was very nice, very tasteful. Thank you, Mr. Stark.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Potts.”

As they were having a small little moment, Manda ran downstairs, hopping off the last three steps before making it inside the workshop. “I’m ready to go!” She stated, now wearing her Stark Industries shirt, black skinny jeans and Converse. 

“Manda… I think maybe you should stay home. I’m getting a weird feeling.”

“No! Please! I wanna go!”

“I don’t know…”

“Pleaaaase!” 

Manda frowned, folding her arms over her chest. “Don’t. Don’t look at me like that, y’know I hate that look.”

“Why can’t I go? I haven’t gone on a business trip with you in for-ever,” she said dramatically, trying to win him over. “And I wanna see Uncle Rhodey.” 

“You saw him last night.”

“Yeah,  _ last night. _ I never see Uncle Rhodey, it isn’t fair!” 

“Alright, alright, you can go.”

“Yes!” She grabbed his hand, trying to drag him towards the door, “C’mon!”

“Hold on, hold on. Say goodbye to Pepper.”

“Bye, Pepper!”

* * *

Tony and Manda were driving in Tony’s white sports car with Happy driving in his usual black car following behind them. Tony was going well over the speed limit, therefore, Happy had to try his best to keep up with him. This is exactly why Manda favored this sports car over all the others that her dad had, it was the fastest, and every time they used it, Tony would try to race someone. It was exciting, even though Manda knew it could be extremely dangerous. That’s why Tony told her to never tell Pepper what happens when they take it out for a drive. 

They pulled into the  _ Stark Industries  _ parking lot to see Rhodey standing outside the private plane waiting for him. He skidded the car to a stop, and getting a closer look, Uncle Rhodey was not happy at all. Tony and Manda quickly got out of the car to see Happy. 

“You were good. I thought I lost you back there,” Tony said to Happy.

“You did, sir. I had to cut across Mulholland,” Happy said as he opened up the trunk of his car, pulling out a bag.

“What is wrong with you?” Rhodey demanded as they walked over to the private plan.

“What?”

“Three hours.”

“I got caught doing a piece for  _ Vanity Fair.” _

“Three hours. For three hours you got me standing here.”

Tony held onto Manda’s hand as they waked up the stairs to the plane with Uncle Happy behind them carrying the bags. “We’re waiting on you now. Let’s go, c’mon,” he told Uncle Rhodey before they went into the plane.

* * *

 

The plane was up in the air now, Tony, Manda, and Uncle Rhodey were sitting at the table while the air hostess was wandering around making sure that they were being taken care of. Tony had his face leaning on his arm, watching Rhodey. 

“What you reading, platypus?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, sour patch. Don’t be mad.”

“I told you, I’m not mad. I’m indifferent, okay?”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Good morning, Mr. Stark,” another air hostess said as she walked up to their table.

“You don’t need to apologize to me. I’m your man.”

Tony looked up at the hostess with a smile on his face. “Hi. I told him I was sorry, but he…”

“I’m just indifferent right now.”

“Hot towel?” She asked him. 

“You don’t respect yourself,” Rhodey kept going on while Manda was looking back and forth between them during their exchange as Tony took the hot towel the hostess was offering, “so I know you don’t respect me.”

“I respect you.”

“I’m just your babysitter. I don’t think I’ve babysitted Manda as much as I babysit you.”

Manda smiled. “I respect you, Uncle Rhodey.”

“Thanks, Manda, that means a lot,” he smiled back at his niece. Tony just stared at him, not sure what to even respond with to that. “If you need anything let me know- Thank you,” he told the hostess as she offered him a hot towel, “let me know and I’ll get you a bottle, okay?”

“Hey, heat up the sake, would you? Thanks for reminding me,” Tony said with a smirk on his face.

“No, I’m not talking… We’re not drinking. We’re working right now.”

“You can’t have sashimi without sake.”

“You are constitutionally incapable of being responsible.”

Tony took off his sunglasses, placing them on the table in front of Manda. “It would be irresponsible not to drink. I’m just talking about a nightcap.”

“Hot sake?” The hostess offered.

“Yes, two, please. And an apple juice for the kid.”

“No,” Rhodey said firmly as she started to pour the alcohol, “I’m not drinking. I don’t want any. You have your daughter on board, how do you see this as a good idea?”

Tony looked down at Manda who looked up to him in return. “Manda? Wanna see the pilotless pilot of this plane?”

“Yeah!” She answered, a huge smile on her face. 

“C’mon, I’ll show you.” They both got up, Tony led them to the cockpit of the plane, where, like he said, there weren’t any pilots on this plane. “Cool, right? Take a seat.” He patted the top of what would be the pilot's chair if there were any. Manda scrambled up on the high seat, sitting up on her knees to get a better view out of the windshield. “You like that view?”

“It’s bitchin’!” Manda said, leaning forward so she could see the ground. 

“That’s what I thought too. Hey, your Uncle Rhodey and I are going to talk about work stuff, so I need you to stay in here.”

“Hey!” Manda turned around, a pout on her face, “you tricked me!”

“I sure did. They’ll bring you your apple juice and some animal crackers soon. I love you,” Tony said quickly, backing up and closing the door behind him. 

* * *

It was about an hour when the plane landed at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. There were other planes and helicopters everywhere, a lot of other soldiers in uniform were running about. When Tony went back to get Manda from the cockpit, he had changed from his street clothes into a suit and wearing a black pair of sunglasses. He held out his arms to his daughter, but she only glared at him in response. 

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, dropping his arms.

“You locked me in here.”

“I didn’t lock you in here.”

“You told me to stay!”

“That doesn’t equal lock- c’mon, Scrappy, we’re here. Do you wanna see the presentation or do you actually want to be locked in here.” A smile crossed his lips when Manda grabbed his hand. They walked out of the plane, a handful of soldiers were standing at the bottom of the steps to watch them come out. Tony didn’t say anything to them, but went over to an older man with sunglasses on and wearing a slightly different uniform than everyone else. “General,” Tony greeted, shaking the man's hand. 

“Welcome, Mr. Stark. We look forward to your weapons presentation,” the General responded.

“Thanks.” He reached out and started shaking hands with the others that were there too. 

The General looked down at Manda, who was looking lost and confused about all these people that were here, she didn’t recognize any of them. “Hello, young lady. What’s your name?”

“Manda,” she answered, looking up at the tall man.

“Manda? That’s a unique name,” he said before kneeling down in front of her. “Are you excited to watch your dad’s presentation?”

“Yeah! I haven’t been on a business trip with him in a long time!”

The General started digging around in his pocket. “Well, it was nice of him to bring you along then, isn’t it?” He pulled out a metal star pin from his pocket, attaching it to Manda’s shirt. “A souvenir from your business trip.” He smiled at her.

“This is awesome! Thanks!”

* * *

“Is it better to be feared or respected?” Tony started off his presentation, his back to an open area, speaking to a group of military. Manda was holding onto Uncle Rhodey’s hand, wearing goggles and a bandana around her face like her dad had told her to do. It was hard to see what was going on, and it was kinda hard to breathe, but Tony had insisted that if she wanted to be up close she would have to wear them. “I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries’ Freedom Line. It’s the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology.  _ They  _ say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That’s how Dad did it. That’s how America does it. And it’s worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won’t even want to come out of their caves.” 

Tony waved his hand over to the technicians that were on standby to launch the  _ Jericho.  _ The missiles turned over towards Tony, slanted upward. While there were three missiles in the loader, only one of them shot out. It went in the air, breaking apart the further away it went to reveal hundreds of smaller missiles coming out from it.

“For your consideration,” Tony continued, “the  _ Jericho. _ ” He held his arms up to his sides as the missiles touched down, sending dust towards the group with a small impact. That’s why he wanted Manda to wear the protection over her face. He walked over to the cooler, an entire set of shot glasses and alcohol emerged. “I’ll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!” He took a sip of his whiskey as his phone started to ring.

“ _ Tony,”  _ it was Obie checking in on him

“Obie, what are you doing up?”

“ _ I couldn’t sleep ‘till I found out how it went. How’d it go?” _

“It went great. Looks like it’s gonna be an early Christmas.”

“ _ Hey! Way to go, my boy! I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” _

“Is that Uncle Obie?” Manda called from inside the Jeep. “I wanna talk to Uncle Obie.”

The look on Obie’s face went from excited to horror-struck. “ _ That’s not Manda, is it?” _

Tony chuckled. “No, it’s some  _ other  _ kid who would call you Uncle Obie.”

“ _ I thought you decided to not bring her along.” _

“Are you mad? You sound mad.”

_ “It’s too dangerous for her to be out there, Tony,”  _ Obie hissed.

“She’s fine. Everything’s fine. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

_ “Tony-” _

“Goodnight, Obie.” Tony hung up the phone before getting into the Jeep were Manda was sitting with three other soldiers inside.

“Hey, Tony,” Rhodey started to say as he walked up the to opened window of the Jeep.

“I’m sorry, this is the ‘fun-vee.’ The ‘hum-drum-vee’ is back there.”

“Nice job…” was all Rhodey said before moving back to the other Jeep.

“See you back at base.”

The Jeep started moving back towards the base with a Jeep ahead of them and a couple behind them. The drive was silent besides AC/DC’s “Back in Black” playing on an old fashioned radio. The two other soldiers who weren’t driving kept looking at the Stark’s then away. Tony noticed this odd behavior.

“I feel like you’re driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy. What did we do? I feel like you’re going to pull over and snuff me. What, you’re not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!”  

“We can talk, sir,” the soldier next to the Stark’s finally answered. 

“Oh, I see. So it’s personal?”

“No, you intimidate them,” a female voice from the driver's seat spoke up.

“Good God, you’re a woman. I honestly… I couldn’t have called that. I mean, I’d apologize, but isn’t that what we’re going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first.”

“I’m an airman,” she corrected.

“You have, actually, excellent bone structure, there. I’m kinda having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?” The three soldiers started laughing at his comment. “Come on, it’s okay, laugh.”

“Sir, I have a question to ask,” the other male soldier in the passengers seat asked.

“Yes, please.”

“Is it true you went 12 for 12 with last year’s  _ Maxim  _ cover models?” 

Manda just stared at them blankly, she had no idea what any of those words strung together even meant.

Tony took off his glasses. “That is an excellent question. Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins. Anything else?” Tony glanced over at the soldier sitting next to them who had his hand raised a little. “You’re kidding me with the hand up, right?”

“Is it cool if I take a picture with you two?”

“Yes. It’s very cool. Only is Manda says it’s cool. What do you think?” Manda only nodded in agreement. “She’s shy.” The soldier was eagerly taking the camera out of his pocket, handing it over to the man in the passenger's seat. The soldier got close to them, holding up a peace sign. “I don’t want to see this on your MySpace page. Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I’m kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. I’d be out of a job with peace.”

The three of them were waiting for the picture to be taken. “C’mon, hurry up. Just click it. Don’t change any settings. Just click it.” 

As soon as he was about to snap the photo, the Jeep in front of them exploded, causing everyone to jump. Manda clung to Tony’s arm, she had no idea what was happening, but she was scared. There were gunshots and yelling.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked, holding on to Manda.

“Contact left!” The woman shouted. He kicked her door opened, her gun ready to fire. As soon as she got on the ground she was shot down. 

“Jimmy, stay with Stark!” 

“Stay down!” Jimmy yelled, pushing down on Tony and Manda’s shoulders so they wouldn’t be in the way of any crossfire. 

Tony was trying to make sure he was covering Manda’s eyes, he didn’t want her to see what was going on outside, but he was only covering her forehead. Manda witnessed the soldier who just went out get shot in the head. She was shaking, she wanted to cry but she had no idea if they would find them or not if she cried. 

“Son of a bitch!” Jimmy yelled, getting his own gun ready.

“Wait, wait, wait! Give me a gun!” Tony called after him as soon as he got out of the Jeep.

“Stay here!” He shouted. As soon as he turned around, he was shot. There were now dozens of holes in the side of the Jeep, the shot shocked Tony and Manda’s ears, so now all they could hear was muffled gunfire, screaming, and ringing.

Panicking for Manda’s and his own safety, he picked her up and got out of the Jeep. Was that the best idea? No. But if they stayed in the Jeep they would probably be dead anyways. Manda had her head buried in Tony’s chests as he was trying to figure out the safest spot he could go to. He had to dodge all the fire and explosions that were going on around them, finally he ducked down behind a large boulder. At least that would give him some time to think about their next plan. He pulled out his phone, going through the list of menus to try to find what he wanted. Not long after, a small missile landed next to him with the  _ Stark Industries  _ logo on the side. 

“Manda, you gotta run. Go!” Tony set her down on the ground, giving her a slight push to start running as the missile was powering up.

She didn’t get too far when she heard the missile blow. Tony flew through the air, landing on his back. “Dad!” She cried, running back to him. “Dad?” She got down next to him, shaking him. Blood was starting to pour from inside his white button up shirt. 

Tony was conscious, he couldn’t say anything but he was conscious. All he could hear was ringing. He unbuttoned his shirt to see that blood was seeping through the bulletproof vest that he had been wearing. Seeing all the blood, he was starting to slip into unconsciousness, all he could hear was Manda yelling and screaming and some unknown voices in the background. Then everything faded to nothing.


	20. Shrapnel

When Tony woke up, he had sworn he had seen this place before; the dark room, the familiar feel… There was a small tickle on his nose, reaching up, he felt the bandage wrapped around the bridge of his nose with a nasal cannula inside. Tony groaned as he ripped the long tube out of his nose, God, was he dehydrated. It felt like his tongue was going to dissolve into sand if he didn’t get water soon. In the corner of his eye, he saw a cup sitting on the nightstand next to his cheap bed, but as luck would have it, as he tried to reach for it he accidently knocked it to the ground, spilling the cold water onto the floor. 

There was a soft humming filling the room, Tony saw who it was coming from when he looked up from the floor. There stood a tall, bald man shaving his face, his back turned to Tony as if he didn’t even know he was there. Tony tried rolling over on his left side, but something from behind him yanked, trying to follow wherever Tony was trying to go.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the unknown man told Tony, still looking into the mirror.

Tony paused, not sure whether it’d be okay for him to move or not, but when he rolled back onto his back, he noticed a car battery was sitting on a box on his other side. It was hooked up to apart of him. Tony had no idea what the hell was going on with that, he grabbed the cables running from the battery, following it to where it was connected to. This was the first time he noticed that there were bandages wrapped around his upper body, and, of course, that’s exactly where the cables were at. Tony ripped off the white, blood stained bandages as best as he could, anxious to see where it led to. His fingers were trembling as he ripped apart the last of the bandages to reveal an electromagnet in his chest. He then started to breath heavily, staring up at the ceiling in shock. 

“Where the hell is my daughter?” Tony demanded, his voice broken from lack of water in hours. Or days, he wasn’t sure what it was. 

“Resting,” was all the man said, moving back over to where Tony was sitting. He pointed at Manda who was sleeping peacefully on another bed across the room. 

Without saying anything else, the unknown man started cooking food for them while whistling an upbeat tune. Tony was confused, how could anybody feel so upbeat down here? Slowly he sat up, making sure none of the cords from the battery were going to get yanked out. He found a small mirror sitting on the floor in front of his bed, he picked it up and started to examine his new chest piece. 

“What the hell did you do to me?” Tony asked the man in a surprisingly calm voice.

The man chuckled as he was stirring the food over the crackling fire. “What I did? What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but a lot’s left,” he explained. “It’s headed into your atrial septum. Here, wanna see?” Tony looked up at him as the man moved away from the fire, picking up a small, thin jar, giving it a small shake. “I have a souvenir. Take a look.”  He tossed it to Tony, who held it up to get a good look at what was inside. “I’ve seen those wounds in my village. We call them the  _ walking dead _ because it takes a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs.”

“What is this?” Tony interrupted, trying to keep himself cool and collected when inside he was freaking out.        

“That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery. It’s keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart.” The man went back to string the food. “Y’know, your daughter got lucky.” Tony looked up at him. “There was a small bit of shrapnel that would’ve hit her near her heart too. Luckily she was wearing this.” He held up the star metal pin that the General had put on her shirt before the presentation. Tony was sure that she was trying to run away when he told her to, reality was she ran back a few feet, stopped, turned around and saw the missile go off. The man gave the pin to Tony in case Manda wanted to keep it. 

Tony zipped up the new hoodie that he was wearing, making note of all the security cameras that were lined up on the walls looking down at him. The man followed Tony’s gaze. 

“That’s right. Smile,” he said with a small smile of his own. “We met once, you know, at a technical conference in Bern.”

“I don’t remember.”

He laughed. “No, you wouldn’t. With all the drinks you had, I wouldn’t have been able to give a lecture on, uh… integrated circuits.”

Just thinking of Manda was enough to get Tony to start grinding his teeth. He needed to get them the hell outta here and fast. It was hard to believe that small pin basically saved her life. “Where are we?”

Before the man could answer, there was a loud banging on the only door in the room, followed by shouting in a foreign language that Tony couldn’t make out. Whoever it was, it certainly turned the man’s mood around. He was now tense and anxious.

“Come on, stand up, stand up,” he hissed at Tony, grabbing his right arm and pulling him to his feet. “Just do as I do,” he whispered. “C’mon, put your hands up.”

 Tony didn’t even question him, he had no idea what was going on, and he wanted to be sure he’d get out of this alive. So maybe following this guy wouldn’t be such a bad idea. A small group of men with guns stormed their way into the room, looking angry and rather violent. 

“Those are my guns. How’d they get my guns?” Tony questioned allowed, briefly forgetting what the man just told him.

“Do you understand? Do as I do,” he hissed at him again. 

The biggest man who walked into the room, holding his arms out, speaking in the foreign language, sounding like he was happy about something. He lowered his arms, walking further into the room while still speaking. The only thing that Tony could make out was when the man said  _ Stark  _ in the middle of his sentence. He motioned towards the man standing next to Tony to repeat what he just said in English.

“He said, ‘Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.’” The bigger man said something else before he translated it again. “He is honored.” …. “He wants you to build the missile.” …. “The Jericho missile that you demonstrated.” The man handed over a piece of paper while holding up a picture of the same missile that Tony showed off recently.

“I refuse,” Tony said, trying to stand his ground.

The group of men all exchanged glances, the pushed past both Tony and the man, walking over to where Manda was sleeping. Tony was calling out to them, telling them not to touch her. Clearly, the men didn’t care about what he wanted, one of the bigger men grabbed Manda by her hair, causing her to wake up with a scream of pain. Tony tried to go after them, but another man grabbed him, locking his arms behind his back. The two men dragged Manda by the hair over to a barrel of water where they proceeded to water board her. She had no idea what was going on, she was sleeping just fine, well, besides the nightmare she had about a Jeep exploding and her dad getting hurt from a missile. Or… maybe it wasn’t a nightmare and the whole thing did actually happen, considering the fact she was being forced underwater by her hair. In the background, Manda could hear her dad yelling something she couldn’t make out, everything sounded muffled. Every time she was about to pass out from lack of air, the men would pull her up, giving her at least five seconds to breathe before doing it all over again.

“Okay! I’ll do it!” Tony finally told the men.    

When they pulled Manda out again, they hooded her and Tony before walking out of the cave. Once it was removed, the sun poured over the Stark’s face, causing them to temporarily be blind before their eyesight readjusted. Someone smacked Tony upside the head so he could get a move on, he held onto the battery tightly as he walked outside the cave a little more. Manda tried to get over to her dad, but the men wouldn’t let her move from their grasp.

All around them they could see boxes and weapons with  _ Stark Industries  _ branded all over them. These were his weapons. He never authorized his weapons to go so far out. 

“He wants to know what you think,” the man Tony met from the cave told him after someone spoke to him in a foreign language.

“I think you got a lot of my weapons.” He translated it back to the bigger man before he kept on speaking. 

“He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make a list of materials. He says, uh, he wants you to start work immediately. When you’re done, you and your child will go home.”

Tony shook the man’s hand with a fake smile on his face. “No, we won’t.”

“No, you won’t,” his friend agreed. 

* * *

 

It was getting colder as night came, luckily there was were some beanies lying around for Tony and Manda to use to keep themselves warm. They all gathered around the fire, Tony had an arm wrapped around Manda, bringing her close to his side. She hasn’t said a word this entire time, but what could she even say? Her nightmare turned out to be real, she has no idea where she even is, and she gets woken up by waterboarding. Yeah, not much to say about all that.

“I’m sure they’re looking for you, Stark,” he said, “but they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you saw… that is your legacy, Stark. Your life’s work, in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something?”

“Why should I do anything?” Tony interrupted him. “They’re going to kill us… you… either way. And if they don’t I’ll be dead in a week.”

“Well then… this is a very important week for you, isn’t it? I don’t think your daughter would appreciate you thinking like this. How do you think she feels seeing you act this way? You have to at least try.”

Tony stared into the fire, this entire time he was thinking about Manda and how this was affecting her. He could feel her sadness over all of this, he could feel that she wasn’t okay. No. He wasn’t going to give up, he was going to make sure to get out of here. He needed to get out of here, not just for his own sake, but for Manda’s sake too.


	21. New Production Line

Tony had given them the list of supplies that he needed the night before, by early sunrise there were almost a dozen men working to place the materials where he wanted them while Tony was also telling them what else he forgot to put down while his new friend was translating what he was saying back to everyone working. It was a huge mess going on, so Tony was trying to keep track where what was going while listing what supplies he was now going to need to get them the Jericho, all while making sure Manda kept a hold onto his hand.  

Once everything settled down and it was just Tony and his roommate again, Tony started to get to work. He was pulling apart one of his missiles with his friend standing over his shoulder, watching what he was doing.

“How many languages do you speak?” Tony asked him out of pure curiosity. 

“A lot. But apparently, not enough for this place.” Tony chuckled. “They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian.”

“I don’t know what half of those things are,” Manda admitted, sitting on the work table next to the missile with her legs crossed, her elbows propped up on her knees.

“Who are these people?” Tony pulled the main component out of the missile, making sure that it looked like he was working so they wouldn’t barge back in. 

“ _ They  _ are your loyal customers, sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings.” He knelt down next to Tony who was working nonstop. “You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process.”

“Uh-huh,” was all Tony said as he pulled out another component of another of his missiles. “We don’t need this.” He threw a large piece of the component over his shoulder after he removed just one piece of it. 

“What is that?” 

Tony held up a small piece of material in between a pair of pliers. “That’s palladium, 0.15 grams. We need at least 1.6, so why don’t you go break down the other 11?”

* * *

“Careful. Careful we only get one shot at this,” Tony watched nervously as his friend was carrying a hot cup with a tool. If that dropped then everything he was planning would be ruined. 

“Relax, I have steady hands. How do you think you’re still alive?” He explained with a smug look on his face as he poured it out where Tony wanted it.

“What do I call you?” 

“My name is Yinsen.”

“Yinsen. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

* * *

Tony goes through and makes whatever it was he was planning, to be honest, at first he was nervous about making this instead of the Jericho missile since Yinsen was always watching him. The more he worked with Yinsen, the more he could trust him. They worked silently the whole time with little to no breaks, Tony wanted this done, and Yinsen was curious about whatever Tony was building. Manda insisted that she wanted to help, but Tony wouldn’t allow it. He assured her that it wasn’t because she wouldn’t do a good job, but this was a too serious of a situation. One thing goes wrong and they all could be killed. It probably wasn’t a good thing to tell a seven-year-old, but that was the reality of the situation, it was unpredictable. 

What Tony was creating was finally finished, it glowed blue and was about the size of the hole in Tony’s chest. Manda was hanging over her dad’s shoulder to get a better look at what he just made. “Whoa,” Yinsen exclaimed as he knelt down next to Tony. “This doesn’t look like a Jericho missile.”

“That’s because it’s a miniaturized arc reactor. I got a big one powering my factory at home,” Tony tapped it, “it should keep the shrapnel out of my heart.”

“But what could it generate?” 

“If my math is right, and it always is, three gigajoules per second.”

“That could run your heart for 50 lifetimes.”

“Yeah. Or something big for 15 minutes.”

Tony got up, pulling out the blueprints that he had been working on in secret until he was sure whether or not if he could trust Yinsen. He flipped on the desk lamp so they could see the whole blueprints through the tissue like paper.

“This is our ticket out of here.”

“What is it?”Both Yinsen and Manda asked him at the same time.  

“Flatten them out and look.” Before Yinsen could process what Tony said, he did it for him, revealing an iron suit.

“Impressive.” 

Yinsen had helped Tony place the arc reactor in his chest where the car battery set up used to be. It was an easy process, but it had to be a quick one, they didn’t want to risk any shrapnel slipping in further. After that, Yinsen had decided that it would be time for a break, so he brought out a game board and started playing.

“Good roll. Good roll,” Yinsen commented before picking up the dice for his turn.

“You still haven’t told me where you’re from,” Tony said as he grabbed a glass of water.

“I’m from a small town called Gulmira. It’s actually a nice place.”

“Got a family?”

“Yes, and I will see them when I leave here. Besides your daughter, anyone else, Stark?”

“No.”

“So you’re a man who has everything and nothing.” 

Manda walked over to them, slightly stumbling around, her vision was blurry and feeling nauseous. “Dad, I don’t feel so good.” Tony leaned over, putting a hand on her forehead to see if she was running a fever of some kind. No fever, but she did feel extremely cold.

It took a moment for it to click what was going on with her. It’s been a couple days without a dialysis treatment. “Shit…” he muttered, standing up quickly. There wasn’t a dialysis machine in here, but just like his arc reactor maybe he could build one.

“Daaad…” Manda whined, her arms wrapped around her stomach. 

Tony grabbed onto her shoulders, gently pushing her down on the chair that he was just sitting on. “Rest. Relax. Sip on this water.”

“What’s the matter?” Yinsen asked him, watching as he went over to the table filled with supplies and searching through it all. “Stark, what’s wrong?”

“We need to make a homemade dialysis machine.”

“Dialysis? Why?”  

“It’s a thing. Manda has kidney failure she needs dialysis a couple times a week. Last time she had it was the day of the presentation. He picked up a RO membrane that was in a box of random parts, he would have to make it work since it is a filter system, only allowing some particles to pass through. “I need potassium chloride, sodium chloride and sodium hydrogen carbonate mixed in with purified water. Can you do that?” He asked Yinsen, who only nodded in response. 

While they didn’t have any of those chemicals in the room with them at the moment, Yinsen stood in front of one of the cameras, jumping and waving his arms around to get someone’s attention. The Ten Rings had almost anything they could think of, including chemicals. Waiting for someone to come back to the room to see what was going on, Tony began to boil some water so he can attempt to sterilize some tubing that he would need to get the fluid in and out of Manda’s blood stream. While it wouldn’t sterilize it completely, it would be better than nothing. 

 It wasn’t long for a group of armed men to enter the room to see what was going on. Although the Stark’s had no idea what Yinsen was saying to them, they could only assume that he was explaining what was going on and what chemicals they needed. One of the men stepped over to Manda, grabbing her face so he could see if she was truly sick or not. Manda only stared up at him before vomiting on his shoes. 

“Uh… sorry,” was all that Manda could say while the man was presummily cursing in his language. He backed away, leaving the room so he could change his shoes. The other man nodded, telling Yinsen that he would get the chemicals that they needed. “I think I’m gonna die, Dad.”

“Hey, don’t say that,” Tony scolded, pulling out the double tubing with a pair of pliers so he wouldn’t burn his hand. “You’re going to be fine.” Tony dumped that water out then started boiling a new bath of water that he would use to mix the chemicals in with. “We’re gonna make it out here alive, we’re gonna… we’re gonna fix up another car together, we’ll see Pepper, Uncle Happy, Uncle Rhodey, and Uncle Obie again. We’ll get some Burger King.”

“Oooh, Burger King sounds good.”

“Exactly. You’re going to be fine.”

One of the men returned shortly with the small bottles the chemicals were stored in, handing them off to Yinsen who passed them along to Tony. He moved the water off the boiler so it could start to cool while he was adding a couple of drops of each chemical in the pan. The small group of men just stood by watching what was going on. Waiting for the water to cool, Tony attached the RO membrane to an IV pole then he poured the chemical mixed water on one side of the membrane while the other side will take in and store some of the blood waiting for it to pass through the chemicals. 

Just like any other dialysis machine, Tony hooked up the double tubes to the membrane before injected the opposite sides in Manda’s forearms. To keep them in place, Tony used medical tape to hold them down. He turned on the membrane, watching the tubes to see if it was working like he had hoped it would. From the left tube blood was running up to the membrane, it held for a couple of minutes before going back through the right tube, sending it back into the body. They successfully made a homemade dialysis machine.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried doing research on how to make a homemade dialysis machine, so while this may not be exactly accurate I did try my best. Thanks for reading, guys! <3


	22. Finished Product

Tony and Yinsen have been working nonstop to make the iron suit that would aid them in their escape. Manda really wanted to help too, but Tony told her that it wouldn’t be a good idea since they wanted this done. They’ve limited their break time to only have lunch,dinner, or a dialysis break since they wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Tony was hoping that Manda would understand why due to the situation that they were in, but he did promise that when they get home they would make something special together. Tony was welding something until a man opened the door, shouting at them and he had no idea what he was saying or what was going on. Five men entered the room, all of them pointing guys at the two working men and Manda who put their hands on their heads so they wouldn’t get shot. More men showed up, along with a tall, bald man who Tony or Manda hadn’t seen before. He could only assume that was the leader of the Ten Rings. Said man was inspecting the workplace, making sure nothing else was going on in here. 

“Relax,” the man told Tony in a calm voice, but there was no way Tony was letting his guard down so easily, however he did put his arms down just to make sure he didn’t start anymore trouble. The man got a closer look at the arc reactor that was on Tony’s chest. “The bow and arrow once was the pinnacle of weapons and technology.” He backed up and started to pace around the room. “It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire.” Tony held his breath when the man picked up the blueprints of the iron suit, he didn’t make any reactions to ensure that it would appear to be nothing that they were hiding. “But today,” he continued, “whoever holds the latest Stark weapons rules the lands.” Tony glanced at Yinsen who motioned him to relax and to not do anything. The leader dropped the papers, turning around to face Tony. “And now, it will be my turn.”

The leader started speaking in a different language towards Yinsen who responded as such. Tony had no idea what they were saying, but he could feel the tension growing in the room. That’s when the men grabbed Yinsen, making him get on his knees as the leader grabbed a piece of coal from the fire, lowering his head onto the table in front of him.

“What do you want? A delivery date?” Tony tried to ask to calm the situation in the room, but as soon as he stepped forward all the other armed men shouted at him to get back away from the scene, Tony held up his arms again to show that he meant no harm. Manda hid behind Tony’s legs, scared of what was going to happen to their new friend. “I need him. Good assistant.”

The leader dropped the coal on the table next to Yinsen’s face, allowing this time for them to keep working. “You have ‘till tomorrow to assemble my missile. Or we’ll back for the girl.” He motioned for the other men to back up and leave the room to allow them to keep working. 

Manda was shaking, too scared to say anything or to even move. Tony knelt down in front of her, putting his hands on her shoulders to get her to focus on him. “Manda? Hun, listen to me. Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise you. We’re gonna get out of here and go back home.”

“You’ve been saying that for three months!” She shouted. It was the first time she was so loud in a long time that it caused both men to jump.

“Well, we’re almost done. See?” He motioned towards the parts scattered across the room. “We- where are you going?” He watched as Manda walked past him over to the sink, standing in front of the broken mirror. “Amanda, what are you doing?” She picked up the electric razor, running it down the center of her head, her long locks fell to the floor, leaving only an inch left of hair on her head. Tony and Yinsen only watched as she kept doing it to the rest of her hair until it was a full blown buzzcut. Was Tony going to stop her? No. She had a perfectly good reason to what her hair shaved off, she was scared of them grabbing her by the hair and waterboarding her again. When she was finished, Tony hugged her tight, reassuring her that everything was going to be okay.

* * *

 

Given the time limit that they had left, Tony wasted no more time and started smithing the pieces of the iron suit together. He swore that he was going to get them out of here unharmed and as quick as possible. Tony was motivated, more than motivated, he was pissed off about the Ten Rings trying to hurt Yinsen, and he would be damned go after Manda. 

Hours and hours of working lead them up to finishing the suit in no time, Tony put on the bandages on his knuckles while Yinsen was pulling up the suit so Tony could step into it and lock into it as quick as possible. Manda watched them from a distance. “Okay? Can you move?” Yinsen asked Tony before he locked the suit into place. Tony tested it to make sure, everything was right where it needed to be. “Okay, say it again.”

“41 steps straight ahead. Then 16 steps, that’s from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right.” There was a large ball of anxiety in Tony’s chest while he was counting the time down where Yinsen would complete the lock in and he would have to break out of this place.

He could do this. He could do this. He had to if he wanted to get home to Manda and Pepper, and to make sure that Yinsen makes it back to his family as well. Tony was just about to start the power up process, but that’s when they both heard some men calling for them outside of the cell door.

“Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!”

“Say something. Say something back to him,” Tony urged.

“He’s speaking Hungarian. I don’t…”

“Then speak Hungarian.”

“Okay, I know…” Yinsen paused, thinking about what he knew and didn’t know.

“What do you know?”

Yinsen spoke what he knew, the men screamed something back at him that he couldn’t understand. Tony watched the door carefully, little did the men know was that they had riged a bomb to the door so when it opens it was set to explode. They were hoping that they wouldn’t set it off just yet since they still needed time to recharge the suit. 

Things never turned out how they were supposed to, one of the men pulled opened the door, as soon as he pulled it to a certain degree there was a loud boom, sending the men flying backwards. They had little time to spare and no other options.

“Well, that worked all right,” Yinsen commented.

“That’s what I do. Initialize the power sequence.” Yinsen did was he was told while following the instructions that Tony was throwing out at him quickly. As soon as they saw the progress bar, Yinsen went back to finish up locking the suit in place. “C’mon, hurry.”

“They’re coming!”

“Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?”

“We need more time…” Yinsen let out a deep breath before turning around to face Tony. The progress bar wasn’t moving as fast as it could be, making that dangerous timing.“I’m gonna go buy you some time.”

“Stick to the plan!” Tony called after him. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t reach out and grab Yinsen to stop him from what he was about to do since he was lock in with no power supply. “Stick to the plan!” He tried again, but it was too late. Yinsen grabbed one of the dead men’s gun and started firing rounds to get attention. “Yinsen!” There were tears in Tony’s eyes, but he would refuse to let any of them fall, he had to focus on the mission at hand here, if he didn’t then all of this would be for nothing and he would get executed on the spot. 

For the first time in a long time did Tony feel helpless. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t save his new friend, hell, he wasn’t even sure if this was going to work. What if he couldn’t get Manda out of here? The only thing he could do is stare at the computer screen waiting for it to power up. He nodded to Manda, who put on a small, metal helmet and a thin metal chest plate that could block a couple of bullets. Best to be safe than sorry.

The power went out in the whole entire cave, meaning that his suit was set up and ready to go. With power, he managed to pull himself out of the power supply, trying to follow the directions that Yinsen had repeated to him over and over with Manda following behind him. Since the power went out, he could hear a group of men running to their three month old home to check on him, Tony and Manda stayed in place so he wouldn’t get caught. While they couldn’t see in the dark he sure could. As soon as one got close, Tony punched him, sending him flying into the darkness. The other armed men tried to shoot at the stranger in the dark, but they honestly had no idea what they were shooting at, but they had to do something to prevent Stark from escaping. They stopped, saving their bullets. Bad idea. 

Tony emerged from the darkness, going after the men that were trying to hunt him down. The main thing on Tony’s mind right now was the find Yinsen and keep his daughter safe. He punched one man in the face before marching down the cave. No matter how many men charged towards him or shot at him, Tony had the advantage, walking through the storm of bullets as if it was nothing. The men locked themselves in a room, was that really going to stop an iron man? Of course not. Tony punched his way through, accidently getting his arm stuck in a rock bed. As he was trying to free himself, a man tried to shoot him in the head, but the bullet bounced back, hitting said man in the head. 

Marching through again, it wasn’t long until Tony found Yinsen laying on the ground, holding a hand over a bullet wound.

“Yinsen!” Both Manda and Tony called out to him.

“Look out,” Yinsen tried to warn Stark, but his voice was weak so Tony didn’t catch what he said in time. 

The leader of the Ten Rings was standing across the room with a rocket launcher, he shoot a missile towards Tony who just stepped out of the way. It didn’t take long for Tony to counter the attack, he held up his own rocket launcher that was attached to his left arm and shot it towards the leader. While the attack didn’t hit the man directly, it did hit the rock wall behind him, causing large chunks of rocks to fall on the leaders head, knocking him out. 

“Stark…” Yinsen said through a cough as Tony moved the debris that was on him then lifted up his mask.

“C’mon. We got to go. Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We’re gonna stick to it.”

“This was always the plan, Stark.”

“C’mon, you’re gonna go see your family. Get up.”

“My family is dead. I’m going to see them now, Stark. It’s okay. I want this, I want this.”

“Thank you for saving us.”

“Don’t waste it. Don’t waste your life. You have a child to raise…” Yisen closed his eyes, his breathing was steady for just a moment before it stopped. 

Yinsen was dead.

Tony never felt so much anger in a long time, he was going to make sure that Yinsen’s name lived on. He was going to make sure that Manda realized that they were still alive right now because of Yinsen. Tony put his mask on, making his way out of the cave while Manda still stayed inside until the coast was clear. Tony stood out there for a moment, look at the other men who had their guns pointed at him. They all fired towards him, all the bullets were bouncing off of his and didn’t affect him in anyway, he just walked through it like nothing happened.

“My turn,” Tony said in a grave voice once they stopped firing. Attached to his arms were flamethrowers. He activated them, burning all the men and melting all his weapons to the ground. There was no way he was going to allow something like this to happen again.

From above, someone used a machine gun, causing him to stagger down to the ground and making the flames worse. Before the explosion hit, Tony grabbed Manda, activated his stabilizers and flew them out of captivity. Thankfully it did get them out, but it didn’t last too long. They fell out of the sky, landing in the sand, the iron suit falling completely apart, its parts scattered everywhere. Tony ripped the metal helmet off of his head, his eyes adjusting to the sunlight. 

He sighed, leaning his head back. “Not bad.”


	23. Three Months

There wasn’t much that the Stark’s could do to let anyone know that they were in the middle of nowhere. They didn’t have a phone (like it would matter, there probably weren’t any bars here anyways), they didn’t have a locator or a tracking device, and they couldn’t send out any type of distress signal. All Tony could do is carry Manda on his back, after she unburied him from the sand and broken parts. They’ve been walking through the sandy terrain for what seemed like forever. Tony had a brown cloth wrapped around his head, both to keep the sand out of his eyes and just in case any of the Ten Rings came out looking for them. 

“I’m hot,” Manda whined, readjusting the cloth that was over her head.

“I know, hun. I am too,” was all that Tony could say. He couldn’t say: we’ll be home soon, since he had no idea when or even if they would be found.

“And hungry.”

“I am too.”

Manda rested her head on Tony’s right shoulder as she was starting feeling sleepy and just wanted to sleep. It’s been three months since she had a good night's sleep. She just wanted to do was take a shower, curl up in her Jurassic Park blanket, snuggle up with her Pokemon plush toy and sleep for hours with all the cartoons she missed as background noise. 

“Do you think Pepper forgot about us?”

“Absolutely not.”

“And Uncle Happy, and Uncle Rhodey, and Uncle Obie?”

“Nobody forgot about us, Manda. It’ll be okay.”

There was a loud  _ whrrl  _ sound coming from behind him, sand blew up all around them. Two helicopters flew overhead past the Stark’s. Tony started shouting, waving his arms around to try to get their attention. He fell to his knees, Manda still on his back as one of the helicopters landed in the dust and sand to pick them up. Four soldiers and Uncle Rhodey ran over towards them. Manda hopped off Tony’s back, her legs were wobbly from a mixture of not walking in a while and the deep sand under her feet, she ran towards Uncle Rhodey, giving him a huge hug. 

He picked her up, holding her tight as he looked down at Tony who was still in the sand. “How was the ‘fun-vee’?” He mocked with a small smile on his face. Tony chuckled, but it was obvious he was holding back his tears of happiness. Rhodey knelt down in front of him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Next time, you ride with me, okay?” Tony leaned on him, giving him a hug. 

They all got back on the helicopter that took them back to the base. On the way there Manda had fallen asleep with Uncle Rhodey still holding her while Tony was sitting next to him not saying much, he was just happy that they were saved. He was ready to be home, to get clean clothes, some food, and get some sleep. Although, he couldn’t stop thinking about Yinsen. He saved their lives in exchanged of his own, he helped them this entire time, and he knew that his family was already gone. 

Rhodey hung up the radio that he was just talking on, Tony wasn’t paying attention to what they were talking about, he only acknowledged it when he started talking to him.

“What?” Tony said, looking up at him.

“I said they have a plane coming in to take us home.”

“It’s about time.” He shifted in his seat, looking out the window.

“Did they hurt you guys?” Tony didn’t say anything, he only looked at his daughter. “Did they hurt Manda?”

“Waterboard.”

“And her hair?”

“They grabbed her by the hair to do it. She was traumatized. She shaved it herself.” 

“Well, besides that I’m glad you guys are alright.” 

“Yeah… me too.”


	24. Home Sweet Home

The plane ride was smooth, and very quiet. Manda was sleeping in one of the comfy chairs, Rhodey put a blanket over her so she wouldn’t get cold. While he was doing that, Tony called Obie letting know that he was on his way home with Manda. Obie was furious with him that he took Manda with him in the first place even though he had promised him that he was going to make the eight-year-old stay home during his trip. Tony did kinda see what the big deal was with this, but that wasn’t the point at the moment. The point was that they were both safe and coming home. Why didn’t he seem happy about that?

Once the plane had landed, Tony lightly shook Manda’s shoulder to wake her up. 

“Five more minutes,” Manda whined, rubbing her eye with the back of her hand.

“We’re home. Don’t you want to see Uncle Happy and Pepper?” All Manda did was hold her arms up to her dad, her eyes still closed. “No, I’m not carrying you. Want Burger King or not?”

“Yeaah…” Slowly, Manda got up from her chair, stretching before grabbing onto Tony’s hand.

At first, Tony seemed fine walking on his own, but he wasn’t used to being able to walking so far, so he was feeling a little dizzy and had to use the wall as a crutch. 

“You okay?” Uncle Rhodey asked him, making him sit down on the wheelchair that was provided for him. 

“Fine. I’m fine.” Rhodey wheeled him out to the ramp that was their exit door. 

It slowly opened up, revealing bright sunlight, a police car with some agents, an ambulance, and Uncle Happy and Pepper waiting for them. Uncle Rhodey helped Tony stand up, holding onto his good hand as the other one was in a sling. To his left, he was holding onto Manda’s hand. 

“Watch it, coming up here,” Uncle Rhodey told them as they stepped off the platform. 

Manda didn’t even listen, she ran up to Uncle Happy and Pepper, giving them both a huge hug while she was crying tears of joy to finally be back home. 

“Your hair!” Pepper commented, ruffling the top of Manda’s head. 

“I like it,” Uncle Happy commented, picking up his niece. 

“Are you kidding me with this? Get rid of them,” Tony told Rhodey when they stepped off the plane and the EMT’s showed up with a stretcher. The EMT’s heard Tony loud and clear, so they backed off. He let go of Rhodey’s hand.  “Hm…” he sighed, walking up to Pepper, “your eyes are red. A few tears for your long-lost boss?”

“Tears of joy. I hate job hunting.”

“Yeah, vacations over.”

The four of them got in Happy’s car; Pepper, Tony, and Manda were sitting in the backseat. While it probably wasn’t the safest idea to hold an eight-year-old on your lap while in the backseat while the car is in motion, but there was no way that Tony wanted to be away from his daughter right now. It was clear that she was feeling the same way. This is what Yinsen sacrificed himself for, he wasn’t going to waste any chances being with his daughter. 

“Where to, sir?” Happy asked Tony, looking at him through the rearview mirror.

“Take us to the hospital, please, Happy,” Pepper told him, but of course Tony wasn’t going to have any of that.

“No.”

“No? Tony, you two have to go to the hospital.”

“No is a complete answer.”

“You have to go to the hospit-”

“I don’t have to do anything. We’ve been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger, and-”

“That’s enough of that.”

“-is not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference now.”

“Call for a press conference?”

“Yeah. Hogan, drive. Cheeseburger first.”

“What on earth for?”

“Cheese burger first,” Manda added in. 

Without anymore questions, Happy did what his boss told him to do. Straight to Burger King then to go to Stark Industries for the press conference. It was another long drive, mainly because Tony and Pepper were bickering about whether or not he should go to the hospital to be seen. Manda didn’t really have an opinion on it, she was starving.The past three months of her being locked up not eating very much was finally catching up to her. That was clear when Pepper asked Manda her opinion if they should go to the hospital or not, to which she replied with, “I’m just really hungry.” 

* * *

Pulling into Stark Industries, there was a crowd of people already standing around waiting for Tony Stark to show up for this unexpected press conference. Obie was already there waiting with everyone. Once the car parked, Obie opened the door for Tony since he had his arms full between the sling, the cheeseburger, and Manda, there wasn’t much he could do for himself. With that, Tony hugged Obie, making it work.

“I thought you were going to the hospital?” Obie asked him.

“No, I’m fine.” 

“You had to stop to get a burger?”

“Yeah. We were hungry.”

“Well, come on. Did you get me one?”

“Uh… there’s one left and I need it.”

They made their way to the press conference room that was filled up with people. Tony had just finished his cheeseburger as he was walking up to the stage, until Pepper stopped him for a moment.

“Want me to take her?” She asked, looking at Manda who was eating her fries.

“What? No. I’m fine.”

Everything was starting to settle down when Obie got to the stand to prepare the press conference. He wasn’t sure what to say since he had no idea what Tony was planning. In fact, he had no idea where Tony went until he noticed movement from in front of the post, he was sitting on the floor, pulling out a third cheeseburger and Manda sitting on his lap eating her fries. 

“Why don’t you just sit down?” Tony told the crowd of people. “That way you can see me, and I can… a little less formal and…” he paused, taking a bite of his cheeseburger, Obie sitting down next to them. Tony looked at Obie in the eyes. “Good to see you.” Obie squeezed Tony’s shoulder for reassurance. “I never got to say goodbye to dad… I never got to say goodbye to my father,” this time he addressed the reporters, “there’s questions that I would’ve asked him. I would’ve asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability.” Several reporters started to try to get his attention to ask questions. “Hey, Ben,” Tony noted one reporter that he recognized. 

“What happened over there?” The man named Ben asked him.

“I had my eyes opened.” He stood up, taking Manda with him, “I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things blow up.” He stood behind the podium so everyone could hear him loud and clear. “And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark International,” all the reporters and Obie quickly stood up. Pictures were being taken and everyone was talking all at once, making the situation very overwhelming for Manda who buried her head in her dad’s shoulder, “until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be.” 

Obie grabbed Tony’s shoulders, taking over the press conference. “I think we’re gonna be selling a lot of newspapers,” he said into the microphone, trying to get Tony to shut up but he kept going.

“...what direction it should take, one that I’m comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well.” Obie lead Tony off of the stage, trying to get the reporters attention back on him instead of Tony. 

“What we should take away from this is that Tony’s back!” He said in the microphone. 

* * *

While Obie was trying to calm down the sea of reports, Tony told Manda that he was going to show her something really cool. The thing that Tony regret while being kidnapped was that he never had the chance to show his daughter the arc reactor that was powering his entire factory. He thought that he should’ve waited until she was a bit older so she could truly understand the importance of the arc reactor, but he realized that she was just as smart as he was, so it was finally time. 

Tony put her down on the safety barriers that surrounded the arc reactor so nobody would get too close to it and get hurt.

“What is it?” She asked him, in awe of how big the arc reactor was and how it was glowing blue with electric. 

“It’s an arc reactor,” Tony started to explain, “it’s what powers this whole entire factory. It’s reusable energy. Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah! How come I’ve never seen it before?”

Tony shrugged. “Yeah you have.” He tapped his chest where his new piece was. “There’s one right here. But, you cannot tell Uncle Obie.”

“Why? It’s what’s keeping you alive. Lemme touch it.”

“No way, you freak.” Tony grabbed her wrist as she was reaching up to touch his chest. “And because, Uncle Obie freaks out too much.”

“What if it stops working?”

“It won’t. This has been powering the factory for years.”

“How many years?”

“Before you were even born.”

“Wow…” 

Tony heard the door open, so he quickly shut up just in case it was Obie. He didn’t want him knowing about this, he didn’t really want anyone else to know about this, but of course he had to tell some people like Manda and Pepper. It was, in fact, Uncle Obie who entered the arc reactor room with a cigar hanging out of his month. He put his hands on his hips and looked at Tony. 

“Well, that… that went well,” he told the Stark’s. 

“Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?”

“Your head? What about my head?” Obie walked over to them. “What do you think the over-under on the stock drop is gonna be tomorrow?” Manda had no idea what they were talking about, so she tried to climb the safety barrier to get closer to the arc reactor, but Obie picked her up and put her on the floor next to Tony.

“Uh… optimistically, 40 points,” he answered, taking his jacket off. 

“At minimum. Tony, we’re a weapons manufacturer.” 

“Obie, I just don’t want a body count to be our only legacy.”

“That’s what we do. We’re ironmongers. We make weapons.”

“It’s mine and Manda’s name on the side of the building.”

“And what we do keeps the world from falling into chaos.”

“Not based on what I saw. We’re not doing a good enough job. We can do better. We’re gonna do something else.”

“Like what? You want us to make baby bottles? Think about Amanda, Tony. What kinda world is she going to grow up in when we aren’t protecting it?”

“I think we should take another look into arc reactor technology.”

“Ah, come on. The arc reactor that’s a publicity stunt! Tony, c’mon, we built that thing to shut the hippies up.”

Manda frowned. “It works, Uncle Obie.”

“Yeah, as a science project. The arc was never cost effective, we knew that before we built it. Arc reactor technology, that’s a dead end, right?”   

“Maybe…”

“Huh? Am I right? We haven’t had a breakthrough in that in what? 30 years.”

“That’s what they say.” Tony studied Obie’s face before rolling his eyes. “Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?”

“Never mind who told me. Show me.”  
“It’s Rhodey or Pepper.”

“I want to see it.”

“Okay, Rhodey.” Tony unbuttoned his shirt again to show Obie the arc reactor that was now in his chest. “Okay?”

“Okay.” Obie started to buttoning his shirt back up as if to hide it. 

“It works.”

Obie let out a sigh, putting a hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Listen to me Tony. We’re a team. Do you understand? There’s nothing we can’t do if we stick together, like your father and I.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t give you a heads-up, okay? But if I had…”

“Tony. Tony, no more of this ‘ready, fire, aim; business. You understand me?”

“That was Dad’s line.”

“You gotta let me handle this. We’re gonna have to play a whole different kinda ball now. We’re going to have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me that you’re gonna lay low. Spend some time with Manda.”

Tony grabbed his daughter’s hand, looking down at her. “I think I can manage that.” She smiled up at her dad. 


	25. Size Matters

It’s been hard for Tony this past week; he was trying to lay low like Obie had told him to, but Tony was starting to feel trapped in the house. He’ll admit, he did love staying home with Manda, he had missed bonding with her so much. He missed how she would just sneak up on them, shooting them with her  _ Nerf  _ guns, especially the one that she had gotten from Uncle Happy when she was younger. He missed how at exactly 7:00pm most nights she would kick him off of the TV to catch the newest episode of  _ Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl _ . He had especially missed being down in his workshop with her either helping him rebuilding a car or just having her watch while he designed a new type of weapon to manufacture. It’s true what they say: There’s no place like home.

While it wasn’t exactly 7:00pm, Manda was still upstairs watching the marathon of the classic  _ Pokemon  _ episodes from 1997. Even though Manda wasn’t alive when these episodes aired, this was still her favorite season. She had just finished up her dialysis treatment, so now she was snuggled up with her large  _ Bulbasaur  _ plush toy on the recliner chair in the living room. It was peaceful. It was quiet. Nothing was going to interrupt her finishing this maraton. Until…

_ “Do it, Pikachu! Agility, now!”  _ Ash commanded his yellow mouse  _ Pokemon  _ from the TV speakers.

The upstairs home phone started to ring, causing Manda to groan dramatically before she answered it. “Hello?” She answered.

_ “Manda, I need to borrow you,”  _ Tony’s voice came from the other end of the line.

No answer.

_ “Manda, I know you can hear me.” _

Still no answer. 

Tony let out a sigh, he had a strong feeling that she was too focused on the TV instead of him, and he really needed her help right now. From the workshop, Tony activated the TV parental timer lock so she would snap out of it. 

“Hey!” Manda whined when the TV screen turned black with a passcode requirement now needed to turn the TV back onto the cable box. “What do you want?” She finally asked into the phone.

“I said I need to borrow you, come downstai- did you finish your treatment?”

“Yes, daddy.”

“Good, get down here, I need you.” 

Letting out a sigh, Manda put her  _ Bulbasaur  _ aside before making her way downstairs. Since Manda didn’t have a passcode to get into the workshop yet she had to wait for her dad to confirm that she was actually allowed to be there. The door opened, that’s when Manda saw that her dad was sitting in the black surgery chair they had down in the workshop, he was also hooked up to the heart monitor.

“Show me hands, let’s see them,” Tony told his daughter as soon as she started walking towards him. Manda wasn’t sure what he was asking, so Tony held up his own hand, asking again, she mimicked what he did. “Oh, wow. They are small, they’re like child hands.”

“Well, I have some news for you.”

“Alright, smartass, I just need your help for a sec for a special project. Grab that step stool.” 

Manda looked over, seeing her normal step stool that she used whenever she was helping him out leaning up against the toolbox. Picking it up, she placed it next to her dad, getting up on it so she could get a look at what was happening.

“Whoa, is that the thing that’s keeping you alive?” She asked,looking down at the new arc reactor, her eyes wide in both fascination and worry. 

“It was. It is now an antique.  _ This _ ,” he held up the one he was holding to give her a better look, “is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I’m swapping it out for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s just a snag. There’s an exposed wire under this device,” he started to explain while carefully pulling out the old arc reactor, “and it’s contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short. It’s fine.” He yanked out the old one, handing it over to Manda who was gawking at it. “Hey, focus, you can look at it later. Put that on the table over there, right now it’s irrelevant to what we’re doing. Listen to me carefully, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Are you listening?”

“Yes.”

“I want you to reach in, and you’re just gonna gently lift the wire out.”

“Is this totally safe?”

“Yeah, it should be fine. Remember that game  _ Operation  _ that we played with Uncle Happy? You just don’t let it touch the socket wall or it goes ‘beep.’” 

This was such a weird request, was she just supposed to stick her hand in her dad's chest and pull out whatever wire he was talking about? Oh jeez, now she was over thinking this and forgot what her dad just said to her.

She held her hand over the socket, putting way too much thought into this. “Just gently life the wire, okay?” He had to remind her. 

“Okay…” It was ‘fine’ at first, she had put her hand halfway in before she chickened out. “I don’t think I can do this, what if I mess up?”

“No, you’re fine. You’re a Stark, you can do this.”

“Okay, okay…” Letting out a deep sigh, she stuck her hand in the socket, she immediately regretted it, she felt something gross and couldn’t help but show her disgust. “Eww, there’s like… jelly!” 

“It’s not jelly. It’s an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body.”

“Dude, this smells!”

“Yeah, yeah I know. The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?”

“Yeah…”

“Okay, good, now don’t let it-” Manda was trying to pull it out as fast as she could, forgetting the most important thing that he had said. She accidently touched the wire to the socket walls, causing a shock throughout Tony, a loud beeping sound from the heart monitor. He yelped loudly. “-touch the walls.”

“Whoops,” she said too casually.

“Okay, now make sure you that when you pull it out, you don’t-” She yanked it out before Tony could even finish his sentence, thinking too far ahead. “That was it,” he finished, seeing the magnet that was supposed to stay inside the socket. The heart monitor started going crazy, causing Manda to panic. “You just pulled it out.”

“Um… oops.”

“Okay, I was not expecting… Don’t put it back in! Don’t put it back in!” He snapped at his daughter who was trying to put it back in. 

“Well, what do I do?”

“Let me think about that while I’m going into cardiac arrest ‘cause you yanked it out like a trout…” 

“That’s not fair! You said it was safe!”

“We gotta hurry. Take this, take this.” He forced the new arc reactor into her hands. “You gotta switch it out really quick. You’re gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you-” Tony screamed after Manda attached the arc reactor at the bottom of the port. The heart monitored started stabilizing again, allowed her to let out a sigh of relief. “Was that so hard? That was fun, right?” Manda just glared at him while he put the reactor in place. “Don’t look at me like that, I feel great.” He paused then started laughing at his daughter's reaction.

“Shut up! That was scary! I’m not doing that again.” Tony laughed again, reaching over and kissing the top of her head. “Get off!” 

Manda turned her attention to the old arc reactor that was still glowing blue as Tony got off of the surgery chair, she picked it up to get a better look at it. It was so weird holding the thing that was keeping her dad alive for the past week, it seemed to be in good condition. 

“Dad? What do we do with this?”

“That?” He looked at it before turning his attention back to DUM-E. “Destroy it. Incinerate it. You know what that means, right?”

Manda rolled her eyes. “Duh, I know what it means. You don’t wanna keep it?” She held it up to him.

“Manda, I’ve been called many things. ‘Nostalgic’ is not one of them.”

“...I’m keeping it.”

“What? No. That’s weird. Give it here.”

“I’m keeping it!” She shouted, backing up when he tried to take her from her.

He held up his arms defensively in case she was going to attack him. “Whoa, fine, okay. Whatever, weirdo. You can’t shock anyone with that, just so you’re aware because you are a troublemaker.” He turned his attention to DUM-E who was following Tony around. “Hey, Butterfingers, c’mere.” DUM-E looked at him. “What’s all this stuff doing on top of my desk? That’s my phone, that’s a picture of me and my dad, that’s another picture of me and Manda; everything else needs to go in the garbage.” Tony watched as Manda ran back up the stairs with the old arc reactor. “She’s a weird kid,” he told DUM-E, patting it gently. “I  _ think  _ she gets it from me.”

In the living room, Pepper was trying to figure out the TV passcode. Tony must’ve told her a thousand times what it was, but unlike them, she wasn’t so good with remembering numbers that weren’t that important. Manda took the remote from her hands without saying anything, entering in: 0620. It unlocked the TV’s timer instantly.

“You’re not supposed to know that,” Pepper told her with a small smile.

“Yeah, I know, but Dad always reuses the same passcode,” she answered with a shrug.

“What’cha got there? It looks like-”

“Exactly. It’s Dad’s old one, he had me replace it with a better one. Look at it.” She held it up to Pepper who was interested in it. “Isn’t it cool? Dad said to destroy it because it was old, but I wanna keep it.”

Pepper smiled again. “Y’know, Manda? I think I have an art project we could do that involves this.” 

“Nothing that involves jelly and I’m good.”


	26. Take One

There was just something about today that made Manda have the urge to plug in her  _ Nintendo 64  _ and play some good ol’ fashioned  _ Pokemon Stadium _ . It had been a long time since she had broke out her first console, it was starting to get all dusty and sad looking. Besides, you couldn’t do Gym Battles in  _ Super Smash Bros: Melee.  _ Another great thing about  _ Pokemon Stadium  _ is that you can plug in your other  _ Pokemon  _ games from the  _ Gameboy  _ or  _ Gameboy Color  _ to transfer the Pokemon that had been caught to battle on the  _ Nintendo 64.  _ Since Manda made sure she caught every single Pokemon available in all game cartridges she had an amazing Pokemon team to use against the Gym Leaders. She had Mewtwo, Kadabra, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Hypno, and, her dads favorite Pokemon, Charizard. 

Honestly, Manda thought that she was going to suck playing this game because of how long it’s been, but she managed to take down the other three trainers in the Gym Battle League, so now she was able to take on the first Gym Leader: Brock. Against her Mewtwo, Kadabra, Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Hypno and Charizard, Brock was using Onix, Cubone, Graveler, Vulpix, Omanyte, and Kabuto. This was going to be an interesting battle. 

Manda’s Bulbasaur and Brock’s Graveler were sent out first by random choice. It worked out for Manda since Bulbasaur was a grass-type Pokemon, and grass was one of the rock-type Pokemon’s weakness. It was Manda’s turn to go first, she made Bulbasaur use his Razor Leaf attack against the Graveler, it was an affective hit. 

While she was having fun with her  _ Nintendo 64  _ Tony had been downstairs for the most part of the morning in the workshop making up blueprints for the “top secret thing” he was working on. He wasn’t telling Manda what he was planning, hell, he tried to tell Rhodey, but he didn’t take Tony seriously. So yeah, he did feel alone in this, but that’s when he thought about it a little more and decided that he didn’t have to be alone. He had an eccentric daughter upstairs who was down to build anything with her dad. 

Tony ran upstairs from the workshop to the living room, he peeked into the room, his head just poking out from the corner of the wall. “ _ Psst.  _ Hey, kid,” he said in a loud whisper to try to get her attention. She turned to face him, her eyes wide from being startled. Tony glanced around as if someone was going to hear them talking before motioning her over with two fingers, still not understanding what going on, Manda paused the game then walked over to him to see what he wanted. He knelt down in front of her, still whispering. “If you can keep your mouth shut you can help me on the Mark II.” 

“What’s that? Sounds like a Pokemon.”

“A Pok- No, it’s not. I’ll show ya.” He stood back up, taking ahold of Manda’s hand before leading them both back down to the workshop. “I know we haven’t exactly talked about what happened while we were gone” he started to explain as he punched in his code then walked inside, “the whole iron suit and that fun stuff, what I’ve been doing down here today blah blah blah.” Dropping Manda’s hand, Tony tore the tarp off of the iron suit that he had made with Yinsen back in captivity, he had decided to put it back together as a reference piece. 

Manda’s eyes went wide. “You found it!” She exclaimed, running up to it, trying to climb on it from its arms. 

“No, no, no.” Tony picked her up, putting her back down on the floor. “I cannot stress this enough - do not climb on anything that we are about to make. I’m 1000% serious.”

“Fine,” she huffed. 

“I was thinking that you could help me remake it into something better.” Tony could physically see that Manda was about to burst from excitement, so he had to remind her about what he had told her upstairs. “Hey, hey, hey, remember what I said? You can’t say a word to anyone.” 

“You told Uncle Rhodey.”

“No, he… he was busy. I didn’t get a chance to talk with him.” Tony leaned over his desk, swiping his hand over his touch screen keyboard, setting up what he needed to to get the rebuild started. “Jarvis? You up?” He called out to the AI.

_ “For the Starks, always,”  _ the AI’s voice rang back instantly. 

“I’d like to open a new project file, index as Mark II.”

_ “Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?” _

Tony moved the original blueprints for the Mark I from his desktop to a projector table that made said blueprints 3D. He then looked at Manda who was at the classic jukebox trying to find the right song that she wanted to listen to. He turned his attention back to the blueprints. “Actually… I don’t know who to trust right now. ‘Til further notice, why don’t we just keep everything on the private Stark Family server?”

_ “You two working on a secret project, are we, sir?” _

“I don’t want this winding up in the wrong hands.” Tony was able to pick up individual pieces of the 3D blueprints to throw away or move whatever he wanted to customize it. “Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good.” After removing some of the pieces that were obsolete, he looked up at his daughter again before clapping his hands to get her attention. “Lets get started, Scrappy.”

* * *

It took some time, a lot of time since DUM-E wasn’t that helpful while trying to assist Tony make the boots. Manda had offered to help in DUM-E’s place, but one; Tony didn’t want her near the welding, and two; even though he talked down on DUM-E it was his childhood robot pal, so he never actually meant anything hurtful that he told said robot. The most Manda could do during the building process was gather the parts, hold things together, and handed off the new tools that Tony needed. While it wasn’t much, she still had so much fun hanging out with her dad and listening to their favorite music. 

“You get a really fun job now,” Tony told Manda, handing her a video recorder.

“I get to record your sad life?” She asked sarcastically with a grin on her face, holding the camera up to her dad.

“Hahaha, you’re so funny,” he answered sarcastically. “No, you’re the one who gets to document the process of our project. Cool, right?”

“Right.”

“Right. Stand by.” Tony was already in his new boots, he could walk in them just fine, as if they were normal pairs of shoes, but he had to make sure that the lightning was on point and everything was out of the way. “Okay, let’s do this right,” he said out loud to nobody in particular as he backed up to the tile flooring where he would stand during his tests. “Start mark, half a meter, and back and center.” He let out a sigh, looking back at DUM-E. “DUM-E, look alive. You’re on standby for fire safety. You,” he turned to Manda. “Roll it.”

Without saying anything, Manda pressed the big red button that she had assumed was the record button. She zoomed in and out to make sure that the shot would be perfect. This was going to be so cool, sure working and rebuilding cars with her dad was awesome, but remaking an iron suit was even cooler! In that case, she wanted to make sure that everything was perfect.

“Okay. Activate hand controls.” Tony wiggled around a little bit as the stabilizers started to power up. “We’re gonna start off nice and easy. We’re gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift. And three… two… one…” 

As soon as he activated the hand controls Tony flew so far back that he was upside down and hit the wall, causing him to fall onto the tool boxes next to DUM-E. Clearly DUM-E didn’t understand what ‘fire safety’ meant, because as soon as Tony fell on the floor the robot extinguished him as if he were on fire, causing Tony to groan loudly in frustration. Good thing this was only Take One. 

* * *

As much as Tony really wanted to get this project done as soon as possible, he also saw this as a perfect time to teach Manda how to use his most advance equipment, and to show her how he built weapons for the company. Instead of having her use the touch panel for the 3D blueprints to move things around, he gave her a pen that did the same thing, but it was more accurate for beginners to use. Under his heavy guidance he allowed her to design the 3D model of the suit that they were going to build it off of. They argued, fought, and even gave up some nights because they were both so stubborn on how they wanted to plan this out, but they always apologized to each other, came to a compromise, and started again the next day. You would think since they were both Stark’s with the same outlook that things would be simple to work with, but that was far from the truth, in fact, they bumped heads a lot, making projects take a little longer than they’re supposed to be. 

After Manda had successfully put together the 3D hologram of the arm piece of said suit, Tony put his arm through it, modeling it to see how it would look. Manda had suggested putting the stabilizers right on the palms of the hands to make flying easier, Tony digged the idea and now seeing it on the hologram blueprint he could see it was a perfect idea. Taking the blueprints, Tony went ahead with DUM-E to build the real thing. It was so cool seeing the holograms come to life after they created it. 

“I need you to help lock this arm piece in,” Tony told Manda. She walked up next to him, staring at the piece. “Okay, I need you to set that.” He pointed out where the lock was supposed to go.

“I’ve been buzzing for you guys. Did you hear the intercom?” Pepper asked them as she just entered the workshop, neither Tony or Manda even noticed. She walked over to them with a coffee mug and Manda’s favorite  _ Pokemon  _ cup filled with chocolate milk. 

“Yeah, everything’s… What?” Tony asked, obviously not hearing a single word that she had just said.  

“Obadiah’s upstairs.”

“Great, great. I’ll be right up.”

“What would you like me to tell him?”

“Uncle Obie’s here!” Manda shouted with a huge smile on her face.

“Hey, hey, hey, come back here, you’re not allowed to leave yet.” The sound of her dad’s voice caused Manda to stop in her tracks on the way to the workshop doors. “You designed this thing, you have to watch the first outcome.” Tony held up the arm piece as Manda climbed up on the table to get a better look at what’ll happen. “Okay.”

“I thought you were done making weapons.”

“This is a flight stabilizer. It’s complete harmless.” Tony powered it up, as soon as he did, the stabilizer sent him flying backwards, pushing everything off of the table in progress. “I didn’t expect that…” he said from the floor in pain. Pepper just stared at them, she couldn’t believe that this was what they were working on. 

* * *

Both Stark’s finally made their way upstairs after getting Tony up from the floor and pulling the arm piece off of his arm. Manda had locked it in too tight so of course they had to struggle with it. Manda was tired. She was eight. She wasn’t used to staying up until three in the morning working with her dad. Don’t get her wrong, she loved working with him, but it can be so tiring, especially if they argue a lot that day. 

From the stairway they could hear Obie playing the piano that was in the foyer.

“How’d it go?” Was the first thing Tony had asked him when they got upstairs. Obie didn’t say anything, he just looked at the pizza box that was sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch. 

“It went that bad?” Manda asked, plopping down on the couch next to Pepper who was on her laptop. 

“Manda-Panda, I told you this before: just because I bring pizza back from New York doesn’t meant it went bad.”

“Uh-huh. Sure it doesn’t,” both Stark’s said at the same time as Tony sat down next to Manda, opening the pizza box. “Oh, boy,” Tony muttered as he picked up a slice.

“It would’ve gone better if you were there,” Obie reminded him when he stopped playing the piano.

“Uh-uh. You told me to lay low and spend time with Manda. That’s what I’ve been doing. I lay low, and you take care of all-”

“Hey, come on.” Obie stood up, making his way over to the couch. “In public. The press. This was a board of directors meeting.”

“This was a board of directors meeting?”

“The board is claiming you have post traumatic stress. They’re filing an injunction”

Manda had no idea what any of that meant, although, when Pepper took her to the doctors they had mentioned something about her possibly having post traumatic stress. Nobody told her what that meant, maybe it was a fancy word for nightmares since that was the reason she went in for. They gave her medication to help her sleep at night, they worked alright, she didn’t have nightmares anymore and she felt calmer. 

“A what?” Tony asked, looking confused and slightly angry.

“They want to lock you out.”

That got Manda’s attention. “Hey! They can’t lock us out! Their name isn’t Stark! That means they can’t have it. Is it because…” what did Tony say about dropping points and how that was important? 40? 40 points? “Is it because it dropped 40 points? It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Manda-Panda, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re too young to understand adult talk.”

“I’m not too young!”

“Anyways, it was more like fifty-six and a half.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Both Stark’s said together. “We own the controlling interest in the company.”

“Tony, the board has rights, too. They’re making the case that you and your new direction isn’t in the company’s best interest.”

“I’m being responsible! That’s a new direction for me- for the company. I mean, me on the company’s behalf being responsible for the way that-” All Pepper did was let out a sigh. “This is great,” he added sarcastically, picking up the pizza box and standing up from the couch with Manda behind him. “Manda, let’s get back to work.” 

“Oh, come on. Tony. Tony,” Obie called after him.

“I’ll be in the shop.”

“Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen,” Obie tried again, standing up and grabbing his shoulder. “I’m trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them.” He pointed at the arc reactor. “Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know draw up some specs.”

“No. No, absolutely not.”

“It’ll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!’

“This one stays with me. That’s it, Obie. Forget it.”

“Then this stays with me.” Obie took the pizza box from Tony’s hands.

“Hey! How come he got to have two and I only had one?!” Manda whined at Uncle Obie. 

“Here, take two,” Uncle Obie said, opening the box.

“Thank you!” She said, following her dad who was heading towards the stairs.

“You mind if I come down there and see what you’re doing?” He called after them.

“Goodnight, Obie.”  


	27. Test 37

“Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, DUM-E is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I’m not on fire, I’m donating you to a city college.” Tony had both arm pieces built and were locked in along with the boots. “Alright, Manda. Rolling?” 

“Yup!”

“Alright, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with-”

“100% capacity!”

“Hell no. With 1% thrust capacity. And three, two, one.”

Manda made sure to keep the camera on him as he suspended himself up in the air with the stabilizers and the boots working in harmony. Even though it was just the 1% capacity Tony was still moving around pretty fast, making it hard for Manda to focus. It was fantastic to see that the whole eleven days they spent working weren’t in vain, it looks like they were actually getting somewhere. Tony dropped to the ground, staggering backwards, thankfully he managed to steady himself before falling to the floor.

“Okay…” He couldn’t help but turn to DUM-E who had been on him this entire time. “Please don’t follow me around with it, either, ‘cause I feel like I’m gonna catch on fire spontaneously,” he told the little robot who lowered it’s arm. “Just stand down! If something happens, then come in. And again, let’s bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one.”

It wasn’t too fast taking off from the ground, in fact, Tony seemed to be a little higher off the ground than he was last time. That wasn’t all, he was moving around a lot more, Manda couldn’t tell if he could control it or not. 

“Eugh, will you get away from me!” Manda snapped at Tony when he started getting too close to her.

Tony grunted as he was struggling to control how to move with the stabilizers. It wasn’t working out in his favor, he kept almost running into walls or the ceiling “Okay, this is where I don’t want to be!”

“Not the car, not the car!” Manda shouted when Tony started flying over the cars to move away from the corner of the room.

He started flying over the tables, sending the papers that were on it flying. This was going to be a huge mess that Manda would probably have to clean up. Tony used his hand stabilizers to push himself backwards to get back to the testing area. He laughed nervously, looking at the camera as he was trying to lower himself back down to the ground.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. We’re okay,” he was mainly reassuring himself. With a lot of effort, Tony managed to get himself on the ground without falling over, or without DUM-E spraying him. Well… “No! Uh-uh! Uh-uh! Uh!’ He shouted, holding a hand up to his favorite robot to stop him from trying to extinguish him. 

“Yeah… I think you can fly, Dad.” 

“I can fly.” 

Tony was able to put the final suit on, it was completely silver and bright. He brought the mask up to his face, locking it into place so the HUD can upload.

“Import all preferences from home interface,” Tony told JARVIS who was now working with him from within the suit.

_ “Will do, sir.” _

“What am I supposed to do?” Manda asked him with a frown.

“Uh…” Tony looked over at his computer. He had an idea. “I can project what I’m seeing to the computer, we can also video chat while you watch that. That way you can test the suit with me. Is that good?” Manda didn’t even answer, she just ran to his computer, sitting in the large, comfortable desk chair, kicking her feet up on the desk. “I’ll take that as a yes.” 

_ “We’re online and ready, sir.” _

“Can we start the virtual walk-around?”

_ “Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment.” _

The suit locked itself into place, it was all set up, but it still needed to do diagnostics.

_ “Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics.” _

“Uh, yeah. Tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control.”

Manda put the headset on that had the mic on it so they were able to voice chat, even if they were in the same room, Manda was video chatting with Tony so he could hear her better. “Dad, you know the computer says there are terabytes of data left before you can actually take it out, right?”

“Manda, sometimes you gotta run before you can walk. In three, two, one.” 

As soon as he stopped the countdown, Tony started up the stabilizers, flying out through the garage to test out the new suit that they had made. Manda could see what he saw from his eyes, and she could also see and hear him directly. He was cheering the whole time flying out of the house and up through the air. It was so amazing, Manda just wished that she could try it out for herself. He was flying over the ocean, taking in the sights, making sure that the HUD was working properly.

“Works like a dream,” he said to both Manda and JARVIS.

_ “Manda? Are you down here?”  _ Manda could hear Pepper calling from the front of the workshop. She took off her headset, changing the view of the screen so Pepper couldn’t see what Tony was doing. Manda used her foot on the desk to spin the chair around to face Pepper who was holding a clear glass box in her hands. “There you are, I’ve been looking for you. Where’s your dad?”

“I dunno,” was all that Manda could said.

Pepper frowned. “You know you’re not supposed to be down here while he’s out of the house.”

“I…” she paused, thinking of a good thing to say. “You caught me. His computer runs games faster.”

“Since when do you play computer games? You only play  _ Nintendo.” _

“I’ll give you that. What’cha got there?” She nodded at the box.

“Oh! That’s what I wanted to show you! I got our art project done.” She turned it so Manda could see the final project. It was Tony’s old arc reactor with a plaque underneath that said: ‘Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.’ 

“It looks great! We did good!” Pepper held up a hand after Manda said that for a high-five, which Manda gave to her. 

“I’m going to wrap this up. Don’t touch anything else while you’re down here.”

“Okay, Pepper.” Manda watched her leave the workshop and go up the stairs before turning back around to the computer, switching the programs back around so she could go back to the video/voice chat. Expect… something wasn’t right. Both screens said  _ offline. _ That send Manda into an instant panic, she put her headphones back on, trying to reconnect the call, but everything she was trying didn’t work. “Dad? Dad!” She tried. Still nothing. 

Manda had no idea what to do at this point, she was going to tell Pepper what was going on, but thankfully for Tony his suit came back online on the computer so Manda didn’t have to tell anyone. Tony was close to the city, he flew past all the cars on the main road, flying back up to the sky so he wouldn’t hit anyone. 

“Okay, no need to panic, but we still need to add a few adjustments,” Tony told his daughter, who he could see the panicked look on her face from the video call.  

“What happened?! You scared me!”

“I flew up too high, there was too much ice buildup and powered everything off. I’m on my way back, get the camera ready to watch my landing.”

“Aye, aye.” Manda threw off the headphones, grabbing the camera before walking back over to the testing site. She wasn’t sure when he was going to be landing back in, so she kept it on record until something happened. Well… something happened alright. Out of nowhere, Tony killed the power on his suit, thinking that he was just going to land on the roof, but instead, he went through the roof and two floors of his house before landing on his cars in the workshop in the testing area. Manda couldn’t pass this opportunity up, especially since she was recording. She pointed at her dad. “DUM-E! DUM-E! Dad’s on fire! Put him out!”

Tony groaned as DUM-E extinguished him for no reason. He was sore and tired from both falls. 

* * *

It took a moment for Tony to get out of his suit, but when he did he was going to make sure that Manda got it for telling DUM-E that he was on fire. He pressed the ice pack to his head, looking down at his daughter who was sitting back on his desk chair. 

“You’re grounded forever.”

“No I’m not.”

Tony shrugged. “You’re right, you’re not. But it’s almost three in the morning. Go to bed.” She didn’t say anything, she just picked up her juice packet, sucking on the straw making that annoying slurping sound that straws made when there was little to no beverage left. Tony narrowed his eyes. “Shoo. Go away. Go somewhere else. Preferably to bed. You’re annoying me.” 

Manda hugged her dad tight, her head resting on his stomach. “Goodnight, Daddy. I love you!”

“I love you too, sweetie.” Tony couldn’t help but smile when hugging her back. There was nothing better than having a daughter in his life. It felt like she was one of the only people he could truly connect with.

When Tony was alone in the workshop, he noticed a brown box sitting on his desk. Curious, he threw the ice pack on the table next to it before opening it up to reveal the present that Pepper and Manda made for him. He smiled again. He may not have too much family left, but he sure did appreciate the person that was and the people who he considered to be family.   


	28. Firefighter’s Family Fund

The suit was finally in a spot where most of the bugs were cranked out of it. The whole time the Stark’s were working on it, Pepper, Obie, and even Rhodey were curious about what they were doing, especially since it wasn’t for the company. Tony had Manda promise that whatever Obie tried to bribe her with that she wouldn’t take it, he even went so far as to tell her that whatever Obie tried offering he would double it. How could Manda pass up an offer like that? So far from this, Manda got two  _ Nerf  _ guns and a cake from her dad, just by refusing Uncle Obie’s gifts. Which, in all honesty, was tough to do, he gave Manda the best gifts and he knew that. 

It was about 8:00 pm, Tony was down in his workshop while Manda was upstairs doing whatever Manda’s do. He had an icepack tapped to his left arm, telling JARVIS to render the suit that was almost in the finished stage. He was so proud of what they had accomplished with this, this was a huge step up from just rebuilding cars with this daughter. Who knows? Maybe they could build bigger and better things, but as of right now, it was hard to think of something that was bigger or better than a metal suit. 

_ “Tonight’s red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Tony Stark’s third annual benefit for the Firefighter’s Family Fund has become the place to be for L.A.’s high society,”  _ the reporter’s announcement from Tony’s workshop TV caught his attention. It was his event, why didn’t he remember that it was tonight? Wait a minute…

“JARVIS, we get an invite for that?”

“ _ I have no record of an invitation, sir.” _

Tony picked up the faceplate from his helmet, holding it over his own face while still listening to the reporter. “... _ who wasn’t been seen in public since his bizarre and highly controversial press conference. Some claim he’s suffering from posttraumatic stress and has been bedridden for weeks. Whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from him tonight.” _

Tony picked up his new cell-phone, giving the upstairs phone a call to get Manda’s attention since it was most likely that she lost her cell-phone.  _ “What is it?”  _ Manda answered, the sound of the clicking joysticks were in the background.

“Did you know we weren’t invited to the Firefighter’s Family Fund?”

_ “We’re always invited though, how did we not know about it?” _

“I dunno, but I think it’s time for the Stark’s to make a public appearance. Get ready, we’ll be leaving in a few minutes.” He hung up the phone, zoning out from being lost in his thoughts. 

_ “The render is complete,”  _ JARVIS announced, showing the final product on Tony’s computer screen.  __

“A little ostentatious, don’t you think?” He asked his AI. 

_ “What was I thinking? You’re usually so discreet.” _

“Tell you what…” Tony drifted off, looking at the 1932  _ Ford Flathead Roadster  _ that was sitting across the room. It was the first car that he and Manda rebuilt together when she was just four-years-old. It was black with flames on the sides. “Throw a little hot-rod red in there.”

_ “Yes, that should help you keep a low profile. The render is complete.” _

“Hey, I like it. Fabricate it. Paint it.

_ “Estimated finish time is five hours.” _

“Don’t wait up for me, honey,” Tony told his AI sarcastically before heading upstairs to make sure that Manda was getting ready. Or at least dressed decently. He couldn’t wait to crash his own party. “Manda! I hope you’re- Oh. Wow. You actually listened to me the first time.” Manda was sitting at the dining room table, wearing black Converse, black skinny jeans, and her Stark Industries shirt. That was as dressed up as Manda was ever going to be. “You look good.”

“I know, these are the best clothes that I own,” Manda said with a smirk, her head buried in her Gameboy Advance SP playing  _ Pokemon FireRed.  _ “I won’t wear anything else.”

“You’re showing that Stark pride, I dig it.”

“Don’t try to sound cool.”

“Don’t you mean, ‘don’t try to sound hip’?” 

“No.”

“Fair enough.”

* * *

After Tony had gotten dressed in his formal wear, he and Manda got in his Audi R8, speeding through traffic to get the Firefighter’s Family Fund before it was too late. The high speed never affected Manda anymore, it did when she was younger since she hadn’t been used to it. In fact, it was hard for her to believe that her dad actually drove safe like a normal person when she was a baby. She couldn’t help but assume that he had always drove this crazy no matter what. 

He had parked up front of the building next to the red carpet. Once he had parked it and the Stark’s got out, a valet made his way over to the driver’s side, ready to park the car. Tony had no problem handing over his keys, he was just excited to get back out in the public, especially to prove that reporter wrong that he wouldn’t show up. 

As soon as people standing on the sides of the red carpet noticed Tony and Amanda Stark people started exclaiming and cheering loudly for them. It truly was a surprise to see them out in public after these past weeks of not hearing anything from or about him from an inside source. The Starks were walking past the crowd, flashing lights were everywhere, everyone wanted a first picture of Tony and Manda since he had the press conference. 

“Hey, Tony? Remember me?” A girl with blonde hair asked him.

“Sure don’t,” Tony admitted, walking past her with Manda following next to him. “Lookin’ great, Hef,” Tony said, patting someone's shoulder. 

Manda tugged on her dad’s arm. “There’s Uncle Obie,” she pointed him out.

“What’s the world coming to when a guy’s gotta crash his own party?” He asked Obie as soon as they walked up to him. Apparently he was doing some kind of interview.

Uncle Obie smiled at them, he was extremely surprised that they came out tonight. “Look at you two. What a surprise.”

“I’ll see you inside.”

“Hey, listen,” Obie said, wrapping an arm around Tony’s shoulders, “take it slow, alright? I think I got the board right where we want them.”

“You got it. Just cabin fever. We’ll just be a minute.” Tony grabbed Manda’s hand as they made it up the stairs of the building to get where the real party was at. The first place Tony went to was the bar. “Give me a Scotch. I’m starving,” he told the bartender.

Manda stood up on her toes to look over the bar. “And I’ll have a double of that.” Tony smacked her arm lightly. “Ow!”

“She’ll have a Pepsi.” 

“Mister Stark?” A man wearing a suit grabbed his attention. 

“Yeah?”

“Agent Coulson.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy from the…” he grabbed the Scotch from the bar.

“Division with the long-ass name,” she finished for them.

“Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division,” Agent Coulson corrected.

“Uh… that’s what I said?”

Tony let out a mocking sigh. “God, you need a new name for that.” 

“Yeah, I hear that a lot. Listen, I know this must be a trying time for you both, but we need to debrief you. There’s still a lot of unanswered questions, and time can be a factor with these things.” Tony wasn’t paying attention at all to what Agent Coulson was saying, something in the crowd caught his eye. It was Pepper wearing a blue dress with no back. “...Let’s just put something on the books. How about the 24th at 7:00pm at Stark Industries?” 

Tony held out a hand to him. “Tell you what. You got it. You’re absolutely right.” Agent Coulson shook his hand. “Well, I’m going to go to my assistant, and we’ll make a date. Manda, stay put and give him company.”

As soon as her dad started to walk away, Manda looked up at Agent Coulson who look proud that he finally had his foot in the door to talk to Tony Stark about what happened after all these weeks. Keep him company? He was a grown man, if anything he should be the one to keep her entertained. But whatever, she’ll make this work.

“Okay, check this out,” she said, climbing up on the bar, sitting down besides Agent Coulson. She pulled out her Gameboy Advance SP, turning it on. “I’ll show you all my Pokemon that I’ve caught. Some of them you can’t catch in the game and can only get them from transferring them from the old games.” 

“Oh yeah, I’ve transferred my Mewtwo from my  _ Pokemon Yellow  _ to my  _ Pokemon LeafGreen.” _

Manda’s jaw dropped, she met many other adults in her life from her dad’s work, but none of them even knew what  _ Pokemon  _ was. It was official, Agent Coulson was the coolest adult she had ever met. “Do you have, like, kids or something? How do you know about  _ Pokemon _ ?”

Agent Coulson chuckled. “No, I don’t have any kids. I just like video games.”

“What about GameCube? Do you have a GameCube?”

“I have the silver one.”

“I have the silver one too! Do you have  _ Pokemon Colosseum?” _

“I sure do. I had the original  _ Pokemon Stadiums  _ for the Nintendo 64.  _ Caterpie  _ is my favorite Pokemon.”

“Mine’s  _ Umbreon.” _

Pepper looked over at Manda who had just so happened to glance over at them at the same time as they were dancing. What she didn’t realize was that the eight-year-old wasn’t paying attention to them at all, but having a great conversation with Agent Coulson. “I think your daughter is going to take this the wrong way.”

“Want to get some air?”?

“Yes, I would love to get some air.” 

Both Tony and Pepper walked out of the room, making Manda grow suspicious of what they were doing. She didn’t even care that they were dancing before, but just up and leaving like that made her suspicious. “I need money for food, I’ll be right back,” Manda told Agent Coulson, before sliding off of the bar, trying to find which way the adults went. She found them out on the balcony, she didn’t announce that she was there, she poked her head around the corner, spying on them. 

“That was totally weird,” Pepper told Tony.

“Totally harmless,” Tony corrected her.

“It was totally not harmless, by the way.”

“We’re dancing. No one’s even watching.”

“Everybody who I work with…No, you know why?”

“I think you lost objectivity. I think they just… people… we just danced.”

“No, it was not just a dance. You don’t understand because you’re you. And everybody knows exactly who you are and how you are with girls and all of that, which is completely fine. But, you know, then me, you’re my boss, and I’m dancing with you.”

“I don’t think it was taken that way.”

“Why is she freaking out… it was just a dance,” Manda muttered to herself, still spying on them. “They looked like they were having fun.”

“Because it makes me look like the one who’s trying to...   

“I just think you’re overstating it.”

“But I’m here, and then I’m wearing this ridiculous dress, and then we were dancing like that and…” Tony and Pepper stared into each others eyes for a moment before slowly moving in about to kiss each other. Pepper held onto Tony’s arm while leaning in. 

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” Manda shouted, crawling out of her hiding spot, causing the two adults to jump in surprise.

Tony glared at his daughter as Pepper began speaking to him. “I would like a drink, please,” she told him.

“Got it, okay.”

Pepper let out a sigh as Tony started walking away, grabbing onto Manda’s arm the way he did when he was about to scold her. “I would like a vodka martini, please.”

“Okay.”

“Very dry with olives, a lot of olives. Like, at least three olives.”

“Two vodka martinis, extra dry, extra olives, extra fast. Make one of them dirty, will you?” Tony told the bartender once he and Manda went back inside. He put some money in the tip glass before turning to his daughter. “What do we talk about? You do not run off and you especially do not ruin moments.”

“Wow. Tony Stark,” a female voice from the crowd spoke up as she walked over to the Stark’s. It was that lady from the other night. What was her name again? Everhart? 

“Oh, hey.” 

“Fancy seeing you here.”

Tony stared at her, trying to put a name to a face but that wasn’t his speciality. “Carrie,” he guessed.

“Christine,” she corrected.

“That’s right.”

“You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight. Can I at least get a reaction from you?”

“Panic. I would say panic is my reaction.”

“‘Cause I was referring to your company’s involvement in this latest atrocity.”

“Yeah. They just put my name on the invitation. I don’t know what to tell you.”

“I actually almost bought it, hook, line and sinker.”

“My daughter and I were out of town for a couple months, in case you didn’t hear-”

“Is this what you call accountability?” She interrupted, raising her voice. Manda had zoned out since she didn’t understand what they were talking about, but snapped back into it when she saw Christine handing Tony some photos. She tried to get on her toes to see what they were but Tony wouldn’t let her. “It’s a town called Gulmira. Heard of it?” Tony didn’t answer, he was flipping through the various pictures of Stark Industries boxes, men carrying weapons, his Jericho missile fully intact.

“When were these taken?” He asked her in a serious tone.  

“Yesterday.”

“I didn’t approve any shipment.”

“Well, your company did.”

“Well, I’m not my company.” Tony turned around to see his daughter looking up at him with a worried look on her face, she was picking up on his upset vibes and didn’t understand what was happening. He knelt down to her level, looking her in the eyes. “You need to stay put until I come back.” He stood back up, exiting the building to look for Obie. 

“Please, do you mind?” Obie asked a photographer as he was still in front of the building. 

“Have you seen these pictures? Huh?” Tony demanded. “What’s going on in Gulmira?”

“Tony, Tony,” Obie started, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “You can’t afford to be this naive.”

“You know what? I was naive before, when they said, ‘here’s the line. We don’t cross it. This is how we do business.’ If we’re double-dealing under the table… Are we?”

A photographer was asking Tony for a picture, giving Obie the perfect excuse to admit what was going on without a big reaction. “Let’s take a picture. Come on. Picture time!” Obie announced. Obie wrapped an arm around Tony, who returned it as they were facing the photographers, flashing lights blinding them. “Tony…” Obie muttered, “who do you think locked you out? I was the one who filed the injunction against you. It was the only way I could protect you and Manda.” After that, Obie walked away, leaving Tony there speechless and hurt.

Shortly after that frustrating encounter with Obie, Tony went back home with Manda, who was confused since they were just leaving Pepper behind without saying much of anything to her. She tried asking him what was wrong, but since Tony didn’t want her to be mad at her Uncle Obie, he just said that Christine told him that Pokemon was stupid and they didn’t need that kinda negativity in their lives. Being naive, Manda agreed and went home without questioning anything else. As soon as they got home, Manda went to play her Nintendo 64 and Tony was sitting on the couch, tinkering with the arm piece. 

“ _ The 15-mile hike to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be described as a descent into hell, into a modern day Heart of Darkness,”  _ the news reporter on the TV spoke as they were showing images of the ruins of what was there before the attack, “ _ Simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages have been driven from their homes, displaced from their lands by warlords emboldened by a new-found power. Villagers have been forced to take shelter in whatever crude dwellings they can find in the ruins of other villages, or here in the remnants of an old Soviet smelting plant.”  _ The TV shot to a video of gun fire, clearly using Stark weapons. Knowing that sent a wave of anger over Tony as the news reporter started speaking again. “ _ Recent violence has been attributed to a group of foreign fighters referred to by locals as the Ten Rings.”  _ The video cut to a man who was smoking a cigarette, the same man that held the Stark’s hostage for three months. The stabilizers on the arm piece  _ whrrled  _ a little bit as he was tinkering with it. The Jericho showed up on screen. “ _ As you can see, these men are heavily armed and on a mission. A mission that could prove fatal to anyone who stands in their way. _ ” Tony stood up from the couch. “ _ With no political will or international pressure, there’s very little hope for these refugees. _ ”

At this point, Tony had stopped listening to the TV, ashamed and furious about what was happening, especially with the fact that his closest friend was dealing under the table without his knowledge. He walked into the small kitchen, throwing the screwdriver that he had been using to tinker with this arm piece on the countertop so he could get a glass of water.

“... _ around me, a woman begging for news on her husband, who was kidnapped by insurgents, either forced to join their militia…”   _

The news reporter was cut off as Tony had a small idea. He held up his arm piece to the empty room, setting off the stabilizers to see what would happen. His arm swung back as the room was scattered by the blast. He couldn’t help but smirk, he realized that these weren’t just stabilizers, he could use them as a repulsor blasts. Tony looked up, seeing his reflection in the glass that viewed the starwell to his workshop. He fired up the repulsor blast, destroying his reflection, doing so to all the other glass in the room that could potentially show his reflection. He didn’t even want to look at himself, his weapons were out there causing all these horrible raids and he didn’t even approve them. No. He had an idea. 


	29. The Aftermath

Hearing the commotion from repulsor blasts and the glass breaking, Manda ran downstairs. Tony had changed into black clothing and wearing just socks, when he saw his daughter about to hop from the second to last step to the floor, but Tony held up her hand to stop her since there was broken glass everywhere and he didn’t want her to get cut. The last thing they needed was to go back to the hospital, especially in the middle of the night after them recently coming back home from their captivity. Also, he didn’t really want to explain why there’s broken glass everywhere since nobody else but he and Manda knew about what they were working on. This wasn’t ready to go out to the public. 

“Ah, ah, ah!” Tony shouted, holding his hand up to her, causing her to stop mid hop. Manda looked at him with wide eyes. “There’s glass on the floor in case you didn’t see that.” He motioned towards the floor. 

Manda looked down, she had obviously known that there was glass but that much glass, so if she did jump down she would’ve stepped on it. “Whoa, what did you do?” She walked down the stairs normally, maneuvering around all the glass.

“I discovered something,” Tony started to explain, putting a hand on Manda’s shoulder as he walked them towards the main room of the workshop. “The stabilizers can be used for more than just that.”

“Go on.”

“Repulsor blasts.”

“Huh?”

“All that glass that broke was because of this,” he held up his right hand, wiggling his fingers. “I can use the force of the stabilizers can be used as a weapon.”

“That’s awesome!”

“Y’know what else is awesome? Taking the new and improved suit out for a spin.”

“More testing?”

“Eh… field testing.”

“Huh?” Tony picked her up, setting her down in the computer chair that she sat in last time to monitor and voice chat with him last time that he was in the suit. “What are we doing?”

Tony knelt down in front of her looking extremely serious now. “Remember the Ten Rings? They were the ones who-”

“Yeah, yeah. Why?”

“Un-” He stopped himself, he couldn’t tell her that Uncle Obie was the reason behind this as he was dealing weapons under the table. Well, eventually she would have to know, but it wasn’t the right time, he had to figure out the most delicate way to break it to her. “ _ Someone… _ ” he filled in, “was selling our weapons out to them, that’s why they have them. They used the weapons against a town call-”

“Gulmira?”

“You were listening?”

“I always do, Daddy.” Manda had a smile on her face. 

“We’re gonna test the suit against those who are using our weapons.”

“Blow them up!” Manda said, throwing up her hands. “Ooh! Wait! Let me make some popcorn first.” She climbed off her chair, going into the small kitchen, throwing a bag of microwavable popcorn in the microwave.

“Manda-”

“I’m making popcorn!” She called over to him. 

Tony let out a sigh, he would’ve already started getting into his suit, but since it was the newest model with the new paint job he wanted it to be recorded before flying out to the ruins of the town that used to be there. It was a two minute wait before Manda came waddling back to the computer with a large bowl of popcorn and a can of soda. She plopped back down, put the headphones on with the microphone attached giving her dad a thumbs up. 

The first thing that he told her to ‘record this’ as he was going to get into the suit. It was new, shiney, and going to be great. Manda sat up on her knees, recording her dad stepping on the mechanical pad that, front under his feet, would help him get into the suit. The floor from around his feet started transforming into slots where his suit would began to unfold. The first thing revealed were the boots, Tony stepped right into them as they then attached themselves so they would fit properly as the leg pieces were getting screwed into place. Next, there were a drop down of machines that held the arm pieces, all Tony had to do was stand there with his arms held out to his sides and they attached themselves. This was much more convenient and quicker than trying to do this all by hand. The chest piece wrapped itself around Tony’s torso, placing itself firmly around the arc reactor that was in his chest, glowing brightly as this was what was keeping the suit powered up. As he was amping himself up, two metal pieces that would form his helmet locked on either side of his face while the actual face plate locked itself in at the top then dropped down to cover Tony’s face with the eyes glowing blue like the arc reactor. 

“Sit back and enjoy,” Tony told Manda before flying out of the garage from the carport garage like he did the first time. 

It didn’t take long for Tony to get up in the air, the clouds gathered all around him as he had his arms down by his sides so he could use the stabilizers as they were intended. Whatever Tony’s eyes could see, Manda could see, so it was like watching a movie right on the computer screen. The first thirty-minutes were somewhat lame for her, as that’s how long it took for Tony to show up to another town that was getting destroyed by the Ten Rings and their unauthorized weapons use. From the sky, Tony could see gun fire, missiles launching, and hear screaming and gunshots. 

Tony quickly dropped into the scene, conveniently right when the Ten Rings were about to shoot some poor man. He had landed in a kneeling position, for a moment everything had stopped, no more screaming, no more gun fire… Until he stood up. Every soldier turned their attention to him, shooting all their bullets at him thinking that it would actually do something. Tony stepped forward, punching the man that a moment again a gun pointed at another mans’ head. He flew through the air, crashing into a concrete wall. He spun around as quickly as possible, holding up his left hand to use the repulsor blast on three men, he was about to do a fourth but four soldiers had their guns pressed up to women’s and children’s heads. He had to be careful about this. Tony lowered his repulsor blasters, trying to think of the best possible way to do this. 

From just using his eye movement, he locked targets on the four soldiers’ heads so he could get the idea of the vantage point, he identified everyone else a civilian  so his targeting system wouldn’t hurt any innocent person. On either side of his shoulder a case of darts sprung out, only using four these darts took out the soldiers without hurting anyone else. They dropped to the ground quickly. To show that it was safe, Tony retracted the dart system so nobody would feel threatened. A woman holding onto two kids started shouting towards one of the boy’s who had escaped her grip, he called towards the man who just had a gun to his head and was still on the ground. He hugged him tight while calling him ‘papa.’ Tony felt pride that he had saved this family and all the innocent people from getting killed, but that wasn’t the end of the job yet. He could feel the eyes of the boy watching him as he walked away to find where the other soldiers remained. 

**“** That was awesome!” Manda commented, throwing popcorn into the air, catching it effortlessly. “I think the-” Manda stopped mid sentence when she saw her dad put his fist through the concrete wall, grabbing and yanking the man out from the other side. 

“He’s all yours,” he told the group of civilians who gathered around to watch before flying off. 

Now it was time to find the trouble maker. The Jericho Missiles. His targeting system found it quickly, as Tony was nearing it, something shot him out of the sky unexpectedly. He landed in the sand, a huge storm came up from under him from the weight of the suit. 

“Watch out,” Manda said sarcastically through a mouthful of popcorn.

“Thanks for the heads up,” he muttered to her.

Although, the only known damage was the skidmarks on his mask, he wasn’t hurt at all and the suit itself wasn’t damaged. When he up from the crater his suit caused, he saw the tank in the distance that caused his fall. As soon as he heard the  _ boom  _ he stepped out of the way as a missile came flying out. Tony held his fist towards the tank, an extremely tiny missile popped up from his forearm, it flew to the tank as Tony turned and walked away from the scene. As he was, the tank exploded behind him, he didn’t even turn around to look at it because that’s what all cool guys did. 

More rounds of gunfire flew at Tony, but again, his suit blocked all the damage and he levitated into the air. He targeted his Jericho Missiles, using both repulsor blasts to destroy them, causing a huge explosion. The job was done. Now it was time to go back home.

Everything was going smoothly. Until Tony got a phone call from Uncle Rhodey. There was no way in hell that he was going to answer that call. If Rhodey knew what they were up to they would both get chewed out. He let it ring so it wasn’t obvious that he sent it to voice mail. Well, Rhodey wasn’t done trying yet. Instead of calling Tony again, he called Manda. 

She took the headset off, muting the mic before answering the phone. “Hello?” She answered, throwing another piece of popcorn in the air. 

“Manda, it’s Uncle Rhodey.”

“Who?” A smile grew on her face. Even though she wasn’t physically able to see it, she just had a strong feeling he was rolling his eyes.

“Amanda. Where is your father?” 

“Out for a drive,” she lied.”

“I just tried calling him-”

“He left his phone here.”

“Do you know anything about any tech that you guys had while you were hel-”

“Nope. You can talk to him when he comes back home from his jog.”

There was a pause on Rhodey’s line before he spoke again. “I thought you said he was going for a drive?”

“Uh…” Without anything good to back that up with, Manda just hung up the phone without saying goodbye or anything to Uncle Rhodey. When Manda put on the headset and  looked at the screen again she could see that the Air Force was attacking him with missiles. He deployed the flaps, causing him to fallback behind the aircraft's. He was holding onto the bottom of one of the aircraft's, hiding until it started doing rolls. The craft got hit and the pilot deployed. “Dad…” Manda said slowly, squinting at the screen. “That guy’s parachute isn’t working.” Even though it was blurry, she could see him struggling to open his chute. “You gotta save him!” 

“Working on it,” Tony told his daughter as he flew down towards the man plummeting towards the earth. Even though he was locked on again, that didn’t stop him from getting towards the man, deploying the chute. Saving the man. 

“Whoo!” Manda cheered, standing up from the chair, her arms in the air. “You’re a hero, Dad!” 

“We did this together,” Tony reminded her with a smile on his face as he began to fly home. 


	30. I Quit

“Hey! Ow!” Tony cried.

_ “It is a tight fit, sir,”  _ JARVIS’ voice rung out. “ _ Sir, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt.” _

“Be gentle. This is my first time.” Tony was trying to get the suit removed from the same device that had strapped him into it, but clearly this was harder than it was supposed to be. “I designed this to come off, so… Ow! Hey. I should be able to…”

“ _ Please, try not to move, sir.” _

“What’s going on here?” Pepper’s voice came out of the nowhere as she was watching the robots trying to pry him out of the suit.

Tony just looked at her, not sure of what to say. She didn’t know what he and Manda were working on this entire time, and seeing him in this awkward position didn’t help. “Let’s face it. This is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing,” he finally answered. 

Pepper just stared at the suit, a look of anxiety and sadness washed over her face. “Are those bullet holes?” She asked him.

“Again. Not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing. Can you go grab Manda for me? I have an assignment for her.” 

Rolling her eyes, Pepper turned around, going back up the stairs to do what Tony told her to do. She didn’t realize that  _ this  _ was what they were up to. This seemed to be too dangerous, especially with Manda involved around these… weapons? Would that suit be considered a weapon? Well, maybe not the suit itself, but it did have weapons installed in it. 

“Your dad wants you,” Pepper told Manda who was laying on the couch watching TV. 

“No.”

“Yes. C’mon.”

Manda glanced at the blanket that was covering her, the TV, and the bowl of popcorn sitting on her chest. “I dunno, I’m kinda busy.”

“Manda,” Pepper said in that ‘mom’ tone of voice that always got Manda’s attention. She groaned, putting the popcorn on the floor, kicking the blanket off then followed Pepper downstairs back to the workshop. 

Once Tony had the suit taken off fully, he had it suspended so he could make some adjustments. The sound of the wrench echoed through the room. He stopped when he heard the door open, turning around, he saw Manda and Pepper. 

“Hey,” he told them, turning around in his stool. “Are you guys busy? You mind if I send you on an errand?” Pepper stepped towards him, her hands on her hips. “I need you two to go to my office. You’re going to hack into the mainframe,” he picked up what looked to be a flash drive, “and you’re going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip,” he handed it over to Pepper, “this’ll get you in. It’s probably under Executive Files. If not…” Tony turned, a circular mark was on his neck catching Pepper’s attention, “they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading. Manda knows what I’m talking about if you get stuck.”

“And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?” Pepper asked him when he turned his attention back to one of his computers. “Same drill. They’ve been dealing under the table, and I’m going to stop them. I’m gonna find my weapons and destroy them.”

“Alright, Dad,” Manda said, thinking that it would be the best idea.

“Tony…” Pepper started, thinking about what she was going to say then scoffed, “you know that I would help you two with anything, but I cannot help you if you’re going to start all of this again. There is nothing expect this. There’s no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else,” he said with his voice raised, a serious look in his eyes. 

“Is that so?” Pepper looked down at Manda then back up to Tony. “Well, then I quit.” She threw the lock chip back on his desk then turned to walk away. 

There were tears in Manda’s eyes, she didn’t understand why Pepper was so upset, destroying the weapons was the best thing that they could do. If they didn’t then more places would get destroyed. 

“You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction.” Pepper stopped and turned around to face Tony when he started talking. “And now that I’m trying to protect the people that I put in harm’s way, you’re gonna walk out?” 

“You’re going to kill yourself, Tony. Manda too if you’re not careful,” Pepper countered. “I’m not going to be a part of it. If anything, I should report what’s going on-”

Tony held up a hand to her as he sat down. “Don’t even start with that. Please. I shouldn’t be alive, unless it was a for a reason. I’m not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it’s right.”

Processing all this through, Pepper let out a sigh, knowing that what Tony was saying wasn’t what she agreed with, but she knew that he was right. While it wasn’t great that he was going into action to destroy his own weapons, it was a worse idea to allow them to be shipped out. 

“Please don’t quit, Pepper,” Manda squeaked, tears in her eyes. She didn’t want Pepper to quit, she had known Pepper almost her entire life. She was like a mom to her, the closest thing to a mom that she’ll ever have. “You’re all we have.”

Pepper didn’t say anything, she just walked back over to the desk, picking up the lock chip. “You two are all I have, too, y’know,” she told them, causing Tony to turn around to look at her. “C’mon, Manda.” She put a hand on the back of Manda’s back, walking them out of the workshop so they could go to the office like they were told to.

* * *

 

The elevator doors opened to the floor that held Tony’s office, Pepper had her badge on her shirt so she could pass through. Manda didn’t need a badge since basically everyone knew who she was and knew that Tony was her dad. They quickly, but subtly went through the double doors that was his office. No matter how many times Manda visited, the large view of Stark Industries always amazed her. You could see the tall buildings and jet fighters all in view from one large window. Pepper set her purse down next to the computer before sitting on the desk chair. 

She jiggled the mouse, causing the screensaver to disappear and a login screen to pop up. That’s when Pepper inserted the lock chip in the USB driver on the side of the computer to let it do its job. The lock chip blinked red, indicating that it was working, on the screen read:  WARNING! SECURITY BREACH. Followed by a bunch of coding that flew around the screen before another bubble popped up saying: ACCESS GRANTED. Manda was leaning over Pepper’s shoulder as she was going through the files to find the ghost drive. Once it was located, the file directory popped up, showing copies of all the shipping agreements that they had no clue about. There had to be about a hundred per file. Clicking another file showed a diagram of what looked like the first iron suit that Tony had made in the cave labeled: SECTOR_16.

“Sector 16?” Pepper read outloud quietly, “What are you up to, Obadiah?” 

Clicking on another file it showed the video that was created and published when Tony and Manda had been captured. A burlack sack was over Tony’s head as seven men were standing around him in face covers and guns pointing towards him while one was reading something, speaking in Urdu. The man to Tony’s right ripped the bag off of his head he looked dazed and confused, glancing around the room. Manda reached over Pepper’s shoulders, typing in ‘TRANSLATE’ in the command bar. 

_ “You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark. As you can see…”  _

Manda didn’t hear the rest of the video, as the door of Tony’s office started to open, she ran over to it to see who it was. Apparently Pepper heard the rest as she muttered something under her breath. Manda went out in the hallway to see Uncle Obie standing there.

“Manda-Panda? What are you doing here?” He asked her, kneeling down to her level. 

“Dad told us to come here,” she answered, forgetting that before they left Tony had told her very clearly that she couldn’t tell anybody else what they were doing here. 

Uncle Obie raised an eyebrow. “Your dad told you to come here? Who else is with you? Pepper?” Manda only nodded. “Uh-huh… Why did he send you here?” That’s when it clicked that she wasn’t supposed to say anything. 

“Because,” she started, trying to figure a way to turn this around without getting caught with what they were doing. “I couldn’t find my Gameboy and I was really, really, really mad about it, so I kept bugging Dad about it, and he said he didn’t know where it was either, so we argued and argued and argued about where it could’ve been, then he said that last place he saw it was his office so he told Pepper to drive me here and here we are,” she said in a single breath, her eyes slightly wide. “I haven’t really looked yet though,” she added when Uncle Obie gave her a confused look. 

“Oh,” was all he said as he stood up, holding out his hand to his niece who took it happily, “well, let’s have a look together, huh?”

“I couldn’t find it.”

“I thought you said you haven’t looked yet?” Uncle Obie said skeptically as he opened the door, causing Pepper’s head to shoot up from the computer screen to look at them. 

“I… did but not too hard yet.”

“There isn’t many places it could be. Go have a look.” Manda let go of his hand so she could pretend to look around the room for her ‘missing’ Gameboy. “So,” Obie started, looking at Pepper, who still looked startled to see him here, “what are we going to do about this?” He asked her. “Hmm?” He pressed on, walking over to where Tony kept the alcohol in his office, pouring himself a drink. “I know what you’re going through, Pepper.” Obie picked up the bottle of whiskey. “Tony. He always gets the good stuff, doesn’t he?”

All Pepper could do with smile weakly, giving a small chuckle as she nodded in agreement. She was trying to figure a way to keep him distracted and without noticing the lock chip in the computer or the files being transfered on the screen. As he was messing with the bottles on the table, Pepper used the time to discreetly move a piece of paper that was sitting on the desk on top of the lock chip so it wouldn’t be discovered. As Obie was walking over to her with another drink in his hand, she set it so the screensaver would activate. 

“I was so happy when they both came home,” Obie started, glancing at the screen to just see the screensaver so he thought nothing of it. He glanced over at Manda who he thought wasn’t paying them any attention, as she was going through a bin of her stuff that was kept in his office in case they were there all day and needed to keep her distracted. “It was like we got them back from the dead. Obie walked over to Pepper’s right side, sitting on the desk. “Now I realize, well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself in that cave. Breaks my heart.”

“Well,” Pepper started, “he’s a complicated person. They’ve both been through a lot. I think they’ll be all right.”

“You are a very rare woman. Tony doesn’t know how lucky he is. There’s something I wanted to show-” Obie had started as he was reaching towards the mouse, but Manda was quick. She grabbed a copy of the newspaper, running over to him, holding it up in his face to get his attention. 

“Uncle Obie! Uncle Obie!” She said loudly, waving the paper around. 

Obie’s hand retracted away from the mouse to see what his niece wanted. “Yes, Manda-Panda? What is it?” 

“Can you, uh…” she paused, looking at the newspaper in her hands. “Show me how to do Sudoku? I love doing puzzles with you.”

“Manda-Panda, what kinda fool do you take me for?” Manda lowered the newspaper, her eyes wide again. She thought that they had been discovered. “You have a great memory, you know how to do it.”

A huge pressure was gone from her chest, but she wasn’t done yet. She shrugged. “You got me… We just haven’t done puzzles in a while.” 

While they were distracted, Pepper pulled out the lock chip from the computer before standing up. “We should get going, Manda.” 

“Nonsense,” Obie said, standing up from the desk with the paper in his hands. Pepper was already at the door. “I’ll drop her off at home later, we’re going to do a couple of puzzles together, right Manda-Panda?” Obie smiled down at the eight-year-old, patting her back. 

Since Manda actually had no idea that her Uncle Obie was behind all of this, she didn’t see a problem with staying with him. In fact, she thought it would be fun to hang out with Uncle Obie for a little while. She smiled back up at him then to Pepper. “Yeah! I wanna do some puzzles!”

“Amanda…” Pepper started.

“I wanna stay!” She whined. 

Pepper looked to Manda, then to Obie, then back to Manda. “Well… alright.” She couldn’t just say no. It would make everything look suspicious. “I’ll let your dad know…”

“Bye, Pepper!” Manda told her, waving before Pepper walked out the door.

Obie knelt down in front of Manda again, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Did you find your Gameboy?”

“My wh- Oh. No, I didn’t.”

“Why don’t you check the lost-and-found? Maybe it turned up there.” 

Manda didn’t say anything, she wanted him to believe that they were there to look for her Gameboy, so she turned around and went down the hall to ask the receptionist if there was anything left behind the last time she was here. While she was doing that, Obie threw the newspaper down on the desk, sitting on the computer desk and waking the computer up with the mouse. On the screen it read: DOWNLOAD COMPLETE. Frustrated, Obie stood up quickly walking out of the office. 

“Wh-where are you going?” Manda asked when he walked past her. She followed after him. They stopped at the catwalk when, looking down, you could see Pepper walking and talking with Agent Coulson, who was there for their meeting. “Uncle Obie!” 

“Amanda, not now!” He snapped at the little girl who stared up at him with wide eyes, looking somewhat hurt from being shouted at. Realizing what he did, he ruffled what little hair Manda had. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to snap. Something just came up in the lab, I have to run down there.”

“Can I com-”

“No. You sit in the waiting area. I’ll come back to get you.” Obie turned to walk down the stairs, but stopped midway. “Actually… come with me. I have something to show you.”

* * *

 

It was getting late, and Tony was confused and slightly concerned that Pepper and Manda weren’t back yet. He was wandering the living room when he heard the house phone ring. That had to be Pepper or Manda. He had no idea where Manda tossed the phone this time, so he was lifting up pillows, blankets, moving toys around and lifting couch cushions to try and find the damn thing. When he finally found it, the caller ID had a picture of Pepper on it. Finally. 

“ _ Tony?”  _ Pepper’s voice came from the other end of the line as soon as he accepted the call.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to say anything. There was a sudden high-pitched buzzing sound coming from behind him that caused him to become paralyzed. Pepper kept trying to get Tony to talk since he hasn’t said anything. Someone grabbed the phone from Tony’s hand, hanging up the call, lowering Tony to lean back against the couch.

“Breathe,” Obie’s voice said from behind him. “Easy. Easy. You remember this one, right?” He held up the device that was causing the paralyses, turning it off. “It’s a shame the government didn’t approve it. There’s so many applications for causing short-term paralysis.” Obie moved from behind the couch to stand in front of Tony, grabbing his face so he would be looking up at him then removed the earbud-like devices from his ears. “When I ordered the hit on you, I was worried that I was…” he paused, taking a device out a case that would remove the arc reactor, “killing the golden goose.” He put over the arc reactor, a loud  _ whhrling  _ sound came from the device. “But, you see, it was just…” Tony groaned as the device grabbed ahold of it, “fate that you survived that. You had on last golden egg to give.” He pulled the arc reactor out of Tony’s chest, showing it to him. “Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kinda world would it be today if he was as selfish as you? It’s beautiful… a new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands.” Obie chuckled, putting the arc reactor in the case he brought. “I wish you could see my prototype. It’s not as… Well, not as conservative as yours. It’s a shame you had your child involved. She wasn’t supposed to be there, she was supposed to be here in my care. With her living here… her mind is just wasted potential.” Obie stood up with the case. “And Pepper… I would’ve preferred if she lived. I’ll make sure Manda lives a long, happy life.”

 


	31. The Victim Card

The whole feeling trapped was washing over Manda, she was sitting in the dark with a burlap sack over her head, tied up to a chair. She felt anxiety, fear, and dread all at once and she had no idea how to process these emotions. She felt like she was in the cave all over again, like she was going to get waterboarded for whatever reason. The last thing Manda could remember was following Uncle Obie back to the lab in Stark Industries, she heard a loud pitched sound and now she was here. Where was Uncle Obie? Where was Pepper? Where was her dad? None of this was making sense to her. 

Out of nowhere, the sack was ripped off her head, she was in a semi dark room sitting in front of a large iron suit that heavily resembled the one her dad made while they were in the cave. It startled her, that wasn’t what she was expecting to see first thing. Next to her stood her Uncle Obie holding the arc reactor in his hands. 

“Uncle Obie-... what are you doing?” She asked through her headache.

“Do you like it?” He motioned towards the suit. “It’s not as sleek as your dad’s, but… it’ll work.”

“Where did you get that?” 

“The suit or the arc reactor?”

“Both.”

“Your dad let me, uh… borrow this.” He held up the arc reactor. “Watch the magic.” He walked up to the suit, connecting it to the center piece that held it together. The suit roared to life, scaring Manda, but she felt more anger than fright. 

“You are totally the worst uncle ever.” 

“You should be calling me the best uncle ever. With your dad out of the way  _ I  _ can give you a proper future, a heir to the Stark throne. You don’t realize how smart you are, kid, you’re just as smart as Tony.” 

In the distance Obie heard a small explosion and a the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. His head shot up, he had to think of something quick. Manda must’ve picked up on this too, because she was about to scream, but Obie put a piece of duct tape over her mouth to keep her quiet. He knew exactly what he needed to do, and he wasn’t going to let Manda ruin it. 

“The welcoming community is here,” he told his niece before getting turning off all the lights in the room. He quickly got himself into the prototype to hide himself. 

It didn’t take long for the five agents and Pepper to get into Sector 16 to see what Obie was hiding. The room was totally dark so they needed to use flashlights to be able to see where they were going and what was around them. The first thing they came up to was a small version of the suit that Obie had created. 

“Looks like you were right,” Agent Coulson told Pepper, “he was building a suit.”

“I thought it’d be bigg-” Pepper stopped mid sentence when another agent called for them saying that they found someone. “Oh my God, Manda…” She said when everyone ran up to the girl. “This is gonna hurt…” She quickly ripped off the duct tape from her mouth, causing her to yell in pain. “What the hell’s going on?” She asked as another agent was untying the ropes that were keeping Manda on the chair. Manda was too scared, all she could do was point where the larger suit had been set up at, but now there were only wires hanging down sending out sparks.

Agent Coulson stayed with Manda while Pepper and the other four agents started to search the dark room. Manda clung onto Coulson while trying to hold back her tears, she didn’t want to show that she was scared, but at the same time she didn’t want to be left alone. With chains hanging down around the room there was a lot of jingling, there were also a lot of monitors that showed the prototype in all views.

As Pepper was alone looking around, a dark area of the room she was looking into suddenly had blue eyes staring back at her, causing her to jump. She slowly backed up at whatever was in front of her started to rise up. She let out a scream before running away. 

“Take it out!” The agents shouted at one another as Pepper was running past them with the suit on her trail.

The suit was like a tank, it smacked the machines around it, sending small explosions and sparks everywhere. Coulson move far back still holding onto Manda when Pepper ran through the doorway. Thankfully it was small enough so the suit couldn’t get through, it could only just barely get its arm through trying to grab her. This was something out of a nightmare.


	32. Overload

It took a handful of tries on both Tony and Pepper’s end, but they finally got in touch with each other. After Pepper was safety out of the building away from the suit that had been chasing her, of course. Pepper had no idea where Manda was, she had to assume that she was still safe in Coulson’s watch. None of this was supposed to happen, so why was it?

_ “Pepper!” _ Tony’s voice came from the other end of her cellphone. There was a lot of crackling that made Pepper assume that he was flying around in his suit.   

“Tony! Tony, are you okay?” She said, looking behind her shoulder just to be sure that the suit wasn’t behind her. 

_ “I’m fine. How are… Where is-” _

“Obadiah, he’s gone insane!”

_ “I know. Listen, you’d better get out of there.” _

“He built a suit.”

_ “Get out of there right now!” _

There was a loud rumbling sound, causing Pepper to turn around to look at the tanks that were stationed behind her. She lowered the phone, Tony was still speaking to her but she couldn’t hear a word he was saying since the phone was by her side. The concrete ground started lifting up off the ground. Obie’s suit must’ve dug through the lab all the way outside to escape since it couldn’t physically get out of any doorway. The entire ground shook as Obie stood up from the ditch.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He asked Pepper in a grave tone of voice. Pepper let out a scream when he pointed a machine gun type weapon that was attached to his arm towards her. “Your services are no longer required.”

As soon as the machine gun was starting to fire up, Tony’s voice rang through the lot. “Stane!” Obie turned his weapon from Pepper to Tony who was flying in quickly. 

Tony flew right into Obie, causing them to roll through a couple of buildings and into the local highway. They hit a couple cars and semi’s on their way, pushing them out of the way an causing major accidents. There was one car in particular that was coming straight for the two suits that were now laying in the middle of the highway, it had stopped just in time, but Obie stood up, grabbing the car and picking it up all while looking at the family that was sitting inside.

“I love this suit!” Obie yelled, turning around to face Tony all while still holding onto the car where you could hear the family start to scream.

“Put them down!” Tony demanded.

“Collateral damage, Tony.” 

Tony powered down his repulsor blasts. “Divert power to chest RT.” Using the power source from the center of his chest, he charged it up, blasting Obie back then grabbed the car. 

Tony was struggling to keep the car held up, he could feel the power of the suit weakening. “ _ Power reduced to 19%”  _ JARVIS reminded him. 

He had to fall on one knee to put the car back on the ground. As soon as it was back on the road, the woman driving the car stepped on the gas, going back onto the highway with Tony riding on the hood of the car. Cars were honking and swerving out of the way since they had no idea what was going on but wanted to get the hell out of the way. 

“Lady!” Tony tried saying to the driver but she either couldn’t hear him or didn’t want to listen to him. He was sliding off the car leaving marks where he was sliding from. “No, no, no, no, no, no!” He shouted to himself just before falling underneath the car, having to grab underneath the car. Sparks were flying everywhere due to the speed and his suit skidding against the highway road.

It didn’t take long until Tony slipped off, allowing the car to drive away freely. There was a loud rumbling due to Obie running towards him, smacking cars out of his way. Obie snatched a motorbike from right underneath its rider, using it to smack Tony with. People were shouting and screaming as they were making their way off of the bus that they had been riding on. Smart move since they were moving that way. 

“For thirty-years I’ve been holding you up!” Obie shouted, picking Tony up before throwing him back down onto the ground. He put his foot on his chest, pushing down as hard as he could. “I built this company from nothing!” He grabbed Tony again. “Nothing is going to stand in my way.” He threw Tony against the bus that everyone just evacuated out of just moments ago. A missile with a targeting system rose out of Obie’s shoulders. “Least of all you!” He shot the missile, causing the bus to explode. Tony was pushed up into the air, but before he could land on the ground he used his stabilizers to save himself. “Impressive! You’ve upgraded your armor! I’ve made some upgrades of my own!” Slowly but picking up the pace, Obie’s suit starting rising up in the air, which surprised Tony since he had thought there would be no way that he could ever get that suit to fly.

“ _ Sir, it appears that his suit can fly,”  _ JARVIS announced while Tony was speechless. 

“Duly noted. Take me to maximum altitude.”

_ “With only 15% power, the odds of reaching that…” _

“I know the math! Do it!”

Tony turned around, flying up higher and higher into the sky with Obie closely on his tail. Back on the ground, Pepper was still in the parking lot watching the scene above her. Something grabbed at her hand, causing her to jump. When she looked down she saw Manda holding onto her tight while staring up at the sky.   __

“Is that… Dad and Unc- and Obie?” She asked her.

Using her thumb, Pepper stroked the back of Manda’s hand to reassure her. “Yes.”

Manda knitted her eyebrows together while trying to figure out what her dad’s plan was. He wasn’t trying to go up that high, was he? Taking Obie up that high would cause his suit to freeze up with ice and cut all the power from it. Along with that, eventually her dad’s suit would have a power failure. 

Both Manda and Pepper held their breath when one of the suits started descending rapidly, not long after the second one following behind it. It was hard to tell which one was which at the height they were at. The second one turned out to be Tony, but he still had some of his stabilizers in tact, so he didn’t fall straight down like Obie did. Tony landed on the roof of the building that held the arc reactor that powered the entire facility. As soon as he landed he called Pepper.

“ _ Potts!” _

“Tony! Oh, my God, are you okay?”

“ _ I’m almost out of power. I’ve got to get out this thing. I’ll be right there.” _

“Let me talk to him!” Manda whined, trying to jump up and take Pepper’s phone from her. “Pepper!” 

As soon as Tony lifted the mask from his face a large rumble from behind him startled him. Even falling from that height, Obie was standing there behind him, his suit still in tact. 

“Nice try!” Obie told Tony before punching towards him, but Tony managed to move out of the way. 

He held up his hand as if to use his repulsor blasts, but it had fallen off his hand. Distracted with that, Obie punched him in the side, causing him to fly across the room. With a running start, Tony jumped with the the help if the stabilizers on his boots, punching Obie in the face, but he was quicker, he grabbed the smaller suit and began to crush him.  

“Weapons status?” Tony asked JARVIS. 

_ “Repulsors offline. Missiles offline.”  _ There were so many error messages flashing across Tony’s HUD that he didn’t have the time to read them all. 

“Flares!” Tony yelled. The sudden bursts of bright lights caused Obie to drop Tony in the confusion.  __

“Very clever, Tony.” 

Tony could hear Obie start looking for him while he was hiding behind the door well. Being as silent as he could, he told JARVIS to give Manda’s phone a call. She answered it quickly. “ _ Manda,”  _ he said in a whisper so Obie couldn’t hear him.

“Dad!” 

“Listen this isn’t working… I don’t know how to say this but I just want you to know that I love you and-”

“I love you too, but listen. I have an idea.”

“An ide- what’s your idea?”

“We could overload the reactor and that would blast the roof.”

“You’re going to have to do that. Go to the central console, open up all the circuits. When I get clear of the roof, I’ll let you know. You’re going to hit the master bypass button. It’s gonna fry everything up here.” 

Manda handed the phone over to Pepper so Tony could the explain the plan to her as she stepped through the broken glass to get to the large arc reactor that was glowing a bright blue. 

“We’re going in now,” Pepper told him as she was following after the eight-year-old. 

“Make sure she waits ‘till I clear the roof. I’ll buy you guys some time.”

Both Manda and Pepper started pulling down all the levers near the circuit box, they then moved over to the control panel, pressing the correct buttons that would overload the reactor.

“I never had a taste for this sort of thing, but I must admit, I’m deeply enjoying the suit!” Obie told Tony as he opened up the chest piece of the suit so he could see since he ripped out the wires that showed the HUD. He crushed Tony’s mask before throwing it across the roof next to him. “You finally outdid yourself, Tony!” He said as he started walking closer. “You’d have made your father proud!”

“It’s ready, Tony! Get off the roof!” Pepper said into the phone. 

The glass portion of the roof shattered when Obie started using his machine gun. Tony was holding himself up from falling through since the arc reactor was right under him. 

“Dad!” Manda called up to him with tears in her eyes.

“How ironic, Tony!” Obie called to him. “Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!”

“Guys!” Tony called down to the girls.

“And now I’m going to kill you with it!” Obie continued. He shot a missile towards Tony, but it missed completely. “You ripped out my targeting system!”

“Manda! Time to hit the button!”  

“Hold still, you little prick!” Obie yelled, shooting another missile.

“You said to wait until you’re off the roof!” Manda called back.

“Just do it!”

“You’ll die!”

Another missile fired, causing Tony to lose his hold, now he was only holding on with one hand. “Push it!”  

Manda refused to push it, but since he told them to do it Pepper pressed the big red button. The arc reactor immediately started to power up into an overload. Sparks were sent everywhere, a large pulse blast shot upward, sending Tony in the air. Pepper grabbed Manda who didn’t want to leave and ran out of the building. The blast shoot itself all the way up in the sky, causing all the power in the city to go out for a brief moment while Obie’s suit fell through and landed on the arc reactor, causing it to blow up. 

That was that. 


	33. Just a Malfunction

_“You’ve all received the official statement of what occurred at Stark Industries last night,”_ Uncle Rhodey was speaking in a press conference that was being televised live on the news. “ _There have been unconfirmed reports that a robotic prototype malfunctioned and caused damage to the arc reactor. Fortunately, a member of Tony Stark’s personal security staff…”_

The TV kept going in the background as Tony, Manda, and Pepper were sitting in the backroom waiting for Tony to go up to speak his view on the matter. Pepper was trying to cover up the cuts and bruises on Tony’s face while he was reading the newspaper, specifically the article about his suit.

“‘Iron Man.’ That’s kinda catchy. It’s got a nice ring to it,” he thought aloud.

Manda sat on the table next to him to get a better look at the front of the paper. It was a black and white photo of the Iron Man suit with the headline: “WHO IS THE IRON MAN?” She tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Yeah, it’s catchy, but it’s not technically correct since it’s a gold-titanium alloy.” Tony set his paper down and stared at her. “What?”

“How did you get so smart?” 

Manda shrugged. “I inherited it from you.”   

Agent Coulson walked up to Tony, holding out a small note card to him. “Here’s your alibi,” he told him. 

“Okay…” he said, taking it from him, skimming over what the note card said.

‘You were on your yacht. We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests.”

“See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper and me alone on the island.” Pepper ripped off the bandaid that was on Tony’s head real fast, causing him to flich slightly, giving her a smile.

“Just read it. Word for word.”

Tony flipped through the notecard. “There’s nothing about Stane here.” 

“That’s being handled. He’s on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record.” Even though her Uncle Obie did betray them in the end, Manda still felt sad that he was gone. She felt sad that he felt the need to betray them both in the first place. 

“But what about the whole cover story that it’s a bodyguard?  He’s my… I mean, is that… That’s kinda flimsy, don’t you think?” Tony kept going, poking holes in his alibi.  

“This isn’t my first rodeo, Mr. Stark. Just stick to the official statement, and soon this will all be behind you. You’ve got 90 seconds.” He turned to walk out of the room, but Manda hopped off the table, ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. It surprised everyone since Manda was extremely picky who she liked and didn’t like. 

“Thanks for helping us,” Manda said before moving out of the hug. 

Pepper moved over to them as well. “And I just wanted to say thank you very much for all of your help too,” she added.

“That’s what we do. You’ll be hearing from us,” he told Pepper before kneeling down in front of Manda, holding a card out to her. “If you need me for anything at all you give me a call, alright?”

Manda saw the long name on the front of the card of the division that he worked for. Then it clicked. “Call it S.H.I.E.L.D.” she told him with a smile on her face.  

“S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Coulson repeated, liking the sound of that. “I think you just named our division, young lady.” Manda’s smile grew bigger as he ruffled her hair before leaving the room. 

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Pepper announced to Tony as she picked up his suits jacket. 

“Y’know, it’s actually not that bad,” Tony stated as he walked over to her, “even I don’t think I’m Iron Man.”

He put the note card in his mouth as he put his arms through the jacket. “You’re not Iron Man,” Pepper reminded him.

“Are so,” both Manda and Tony said at the same time. “Dad’s a superhero!”

“You’re not.”

“Alright, suit yourself. Y’know, if I were Iron Man, I’d have this girlfriend who knew my true identity. She’d be a wreck, ‘cause she’d always be worrying,” he turned around to face Pepper, taking the note card out of his mouth, “that I was going to die, yet so proud of the man I’d become. She’d be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more…” he trailed off, clearing his throat as Pepper was adjusting his jacket, “crazy about me. Tell me you never think about that night.”

“What night?”

“You know.”

“Are you talking about the night that we danced and went up on the roof, and then you went downstairs to get me a drink.” Looking past Pepper, Tony could see Manda standing there, he snapped his fingers towards her as a reminder to not ruin this moment. “and you left me there, by myself? Is that night you’re talking about?”      

“Mhm.” 

“Thought so. Will that be all, Mr. Stark?”

“Yes, that will be all, Miss Potts.”

_ “And now, Mr. Stark has prepared a statement,”  _ Rhodey was starting to wrap up as Tony was standing by waiting for his turn. “ _ He will not be taking any questions. Thank you.” _

Stepping aside, Rhodey allowed Tony to take the stage at the podium with the note card sitting in front of him. “Uh… been a while since I was in front of you,” Tony started, looking at the crowd of reporters and the sounds of cameras clicking, “I figure I’ll stick to the cards this time.” The crowd let out a laugh, Tony cleared his throat again getting ready to give out his alibi. “There’s been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and the rooftop…”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark,” Christine interrupted, “but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite that fact that you…”

“I know that it’s confusing. It is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations, or insinuate that I’m a superhero.”

“I never said you were a superhero.”

“Didn’t? Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic,” he let out a sigh, “I’m just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I’ve made, largely public.”

Rhodey leaned over to whisper in Tony’s ear. “Just stick to the cards, man.”  

“Yeah, okay, yeah. The truth is…” he held up the note card to read off of them. He took a relatively long pause, he took a glance out at the crowd who were all waiting eagerly for the answer. “I am Iron Man.”

Everyone in the room stood up, all talking at the same time asking questions, taking pictures. Everyone but Christine who just glared at Tony in response. 

Cat’s out. 


	34. Unfair

It took for-ever for the Stark’s to finally get home from the press conference. It was question after question, then trying to avoid the crowd of reporters that were trying to get an extended interview with him. The whole thing was an entire mess that Tony would best leave up in the air. Tony had told Pepper to take the rest of the weekend off, he wanted to spend time with Manda and wasn’t planning on going anywhere anyways. Everyone was tired, everyone wanted a break from the limelight, it was best to just relax over the weekend, so Happy drove Pepper back to her house and Tony drove himself and Manda back home. 

As soon as the Stark’s got into the house, Manda ran over to the couch and began to jump on it. Tony just watched her, he had thought that he would be taking this situation a little more… hard. Since her Uncle Obie, the man she had known since she was born, betrayed both of them and was now dead. 

“What’s got you riled up?” Tony asked the sudden hyper child as he sat on the other end of the couch, his elbow leaning on the armrest, the palm of his hand propping up his chin as he continued to study her.

Manda stopped jumping on the couch, but still stood there looking back at her dad. “Dad. It’s not fair.”

Thing was Tony was expecting an entire different conversation to take place, so he was trying to prepare for  _ that.  _ But it was completely different. “Well, sweetie. It was his ch-”

“Not that,” she cut him off quickly, not yet ready to talk about it.

“Oh. Then what do you think is unfair, hun?”

“I helped build and design the suit, why can’t I use it just once?”

Tony knew that that conversation was going to come up too sooner or later. “Uh… I think it’s pretty fair since I’m not putting you in danger with the suit. I just told the world that I was Iron Man.” Manda glared at him, folding her arms over her chest. “Didn’t you hear me?” She nodded. “That  _ I  _ was Iron Man. If they see anyone else flying around in the suit then they’ll assume it’s me.” 

“Pleaaaase!” 

“No.”

“Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaase?” Manda clasped her hands together to beg. Tony let out a groan before standing up and walking into the kitchen to hopefully get the message across that he didn’t want to talk about it anymore and that the answer still stood. “Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad,” Manda kept repeating as she followed him around the kitchen standing extremely close to him. 

No answer.

“Dad. Dad. Da-”

“Amanda Maria Stark,” he said firmly in his best Dad Voice to get her to stop, “I said no and that’s final. Besides, it’s too big for you, you wouldn’t fit.”

“What abou-”

“No.” Tony knew exactly what she was going to counter that with, so he stopped her before she could even finish that sentence. “Go do your dialysis.”

For some reason that set Manda over the edge. She squeezed her hands into fists, she wasn’t going to punch him or anything like that, but she was just so angry. It wasn’t fair that he found a substitute for his new health problem, it wasn’t fair that he spent so many hours working on and perfecting the arc reactor, it wasn’t fair that he wouldn’t build something like that for her. All he did was take up all his time building the stupid Iron Man suit, sure he had let her help, but thinking about it there could’ve been more important things for him to do with that time. 

“What about me?” She stood on her toes, tapping on his arc reactor that was glowing through his shirt.

“What about you?” 

“You can use the arc reactor to keep the metal from touching your heart but you can’t make something that would fix my kidneys?”

Tony’s face felt hot from frustration, he slammed the refrigerator door, sending the contents inside shaking. “I’ll think about it,” he said sharply before turning and walking back into the living room with a bottle of water.  It was obvious that he didn’t want to talk about it, but that wasn’t going to stop Manda from talking about it. 

“What’s there to think about?” She pressed on, following behind her dad. “I think it’s something simple to fix, huh? We should work on it together like the Iron Man superhero suit.”

“Manda…” 

“Oooh! Yeah! That would be fun! And I’ll have something like the arc reactor-”

“Amanda! We’re not talking about this anymore!” He snapped. 

She knitted her eyebrows together in frustration. “Why? Why do you get to have something that saves you and I have to get stuck with stupid dialysis? You’re being selfish since all you care about is your stupid suit!”

Ouch. That hurt. That hurt Tony real deep. Normally when he was mad he would explode and explain why he was right and why they were wrong and pull out facts. Not this time. This was different. 

“You stay right here,” he said in that too calm tone when he should be angry instead. 

Manda stayed right where she was like she was told to, watching her dad go back down to the workshop. She didn’t have slightest idea what he was up to, in fact, she was slightly nervous. Clearly this wasn’t something that Tony would do, but Manda had slight anxiety over that maybe her dad was going to come back upstairs with the suit and try to attack her with it. That was over the moon, but seeing what the suit could do it was a little unnerving. 

Back downstairs, Tony was going through the big pile of paper mess that he called his desk. He had no idea what was what normally, but there was a specific folder that he had papers carefully placed there without being scattered around everywhere like everything else. That was unusual for Tony since he tended to be a bit disorganized on most things, but this was different as it was extremely important. He grabbed four other folders that were completely full rather than the slightly empty one he picked up first. What were in these folders were just as old as Manda. 

He ran back upstairs with the folders held tightly in his hand, ready to prove a point. Manda did actually move, she was really thirsty so she grabbed herself chocolate milk before sitting at the dining room table. Manda was staring through her glass when Tony threw the files down in front of her, causing her to jump in surprise. 

“What is this?” Manda asked as she opened up the files. They were various blueprints and equations that could possibly work as a replacement for her messed up kidneys. After each test through the equations weren’t correct and the blueprints failed. They were dated as early as last month to as late as June 10th, 2000. Manda opened her mouth to speak but Tony cut her off quickly. 

“I can’t get it to work. I’ve tried over, and over and nothing worked. So don’t you dare tell me I’m selfish. I’ve spent countless hours on these blueprints and the equations, I think I deserve a little more than selfish.”

Well, that just killed every emotion that Manda had. She was furious just moments ago, but now she felt guilty and ashamed for what she just said. There wasn’t anything selfish about her dad, he had literally spent countless sleepless nights trying to build and figure these equations out. There would’ve been a lot more blueprints if they weren’t obvious failures, these were just the ones that could’ve made a breakthrough. Nope. Nothing. Tony had a headache, this stress with Obie, building the suits, his own health… it was finally taking a larger toll on him. He let out a sigh as he rubbed his forehead, thinking of what to do next. 

Manda got up from her seat, running over to her dad and wrapping her arms around him. “I’m sorry, Dad.” There were tears in her eyes, but she buried her face in his stomach to hide them. 

Tony hugged her back instantly. While what she did say hurt him a lot, he could understand where she was coming from. He never told her about this, so she had no idea. “Just know that I’m not going to stop until I find something that works.”

Pulling away from the hug, Manda went back to the table to hold all the files. “Can I keep these?”

Tony raised an eyebrow in confusion. “You understand that those are failed attempts, right?” 

“I know. I want them for reference.”

“Knock yourself out, kid.”


	35. Out for a Spin

While they weren’t officially dating, Tony and Pepper did go out once in a while for dinner or for drinks. Pepper had the overwhelming need to remind Manda that they were just friends and nothing more, but Manda didn’t understand. They’ve known each other a long time, she’s seen the way they looked at each other, how they acted when they thought she wasn’t around. It was just a matter of time, she predicted, before they would end up dating, or whatever it was that grown ups do together. If only she could learn to stop ruining moments…

Manda was laying on the floor on her stomach behind the couch, she had her Nerf Vulcan EBF-25 all set up on the tripod, the ammo belt was filled with the foam darts pointed at the front door. She knew that either Pepper or Uncle Happy would be walking through that door any second now. About an hour ago, Tony had told Manda that he and Pepper were going out for drinks tonight and that Uncle Happy would be babysitting her. The moment Manda heard a car door slam shut outside she put her finger on the trigger that would spring twenty-five darts at whoever it was automatically. It was going to be awesome.

“She shoots…” Manda muttered to herself, getting ready. She had no idea who it was who walked in the house, but as soon as it opened she held down the trigger, making it rain darts over them. “And she scores!” She shouted before laughing.

“Manda!” It was Pepper’s voice from the doorway, she scrambled out of the way to avoid the darts, but since the automatic gun was on the tripod Manda was able to easily turn to follow  wherever she went. “Manda, stop!” As soon as the toy ran out of darts Manda stood up, pulling out the Nite Finder Ex-3 Nerf Gun that Happy had gotten her for her fifth birthday. “Don’t. You. Dar-” before Pepper could finish her sentence Manda started shooting the darts at her.

It was hard for Pepper to keep the smile off her face while Manda was shooting darts at her, but the fact that Tony was sneaking up behind her with another Nite Finder Ex-3 Nerf Gun that he had bought himself would be more entertaining. Tony didn’t say anything to his daughter, but he just pointed the toy gun at the back of her head before pulling the trigger. The dart bounced off of her head, causing her to say ‘ow’ as a reaction, not because she was in pain. Turning around and seeing her dad with a Nerf Gun made her gasp.

“Traitor,” she whispered, turning around and pointing the gun at him.

“So… this is what it comes down to…” Tony commented dramatically as if they were having an actual showdown.

“It didn’t have to be this way, Dad,” Manda added, playing along.

They both shot their toy guns at the same time, sending their darts flying. They bounced off against each other, plopping down in the middle of the floor. Well. That was extremely overdramatic for no reason.

“Huh…” Manda sighed, looking down at the darts on the floor.

“That was awesome,” Tony commented, tossing his toy on the couch. He looked up at Pepper, a huge smile crossed his face. “Pepper, you look beautiful.”

She looked away, possibly hiding a blush. “Thank you, Mr. Stark.”

Manda stuck out her tongue in disgust, she hated when they talked all mushy together. It was gross. “Oh, sweetie. I gotta talk to you real quick.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Nothing too bad. Nothing bad.” He sat down on the couch. “Remember how Uncle Happy normally babysits?”

“Uh, of course?”

“Well… turns out he’s gonna be busy tonight.”

“What?! Uncle Happy isn’t allowed to be busy! We’re his whole world!”

Tony couldn’t help but chuckle. “I know we are, but he is busy and Uncle Rhodey is busy as well.”

A smile crossed Manda’s lips. “Are you saying…?”

“You’re nine-years-old now, so I think you’re old enough to stay home alone...”

“Yes!”

“...with JARVIS babysitting.”

“So basically home alone.”

“With JARVIS keeping an eye on you, so technically no, but technically yes.”

“Oh my God! This is gonna be awesome!”

“Manda…” Tony stood up from the couch, already regretting his choice. “You’re not allowed in my workshop, understand? If JARVIS tells me you went in there you’ll be grounded forever.”

Pepper put a hand on Tony’s arm. “Are you sure she’s old enough?”

“What’s the worse that can happen?”

“I have a list, but I don’t want to give her ideas.”

“JARVIS, enter Babysitting mode.”

“Babysitt-” Manda was cut off by the AI.

_“Babysitting mode will activate once you leave the house, sir.”_

Tony looked at Pepper with a smile on his face. “See? Problem solved.”

“You just said I was going to be home alone!” Manda folded her arms over her chest, pouting in response.

“I said JARVIS was babysitting.” Tony planted a kiss on Manda’s forehead. “ _Basically_ home alone,” he repeated what his daughter said with a smile on his face. “Alright, you two be good.”

“Have fun tonight,” Pepper told Manda as she gave her a small hug before heading out the door that Tony was holding open for her.

“Oh, I will.”

Manda just stood there, watching them leave the house that went into instant lockdown as soon as the door closed. All the doors locked, the alarm system was up, there was no way anyone could get in or out until Tony got back home. She climbed on top of the couch so she could look out the window to the driveway, she saw her dad open the passenger door for Pepper before he got into the driver’s seat. It was hard to believe that they weren’t dating yet, or at least admit that they were dating at least. Manda thought that they would be good for each other, especially since she saw Pepper as a mother figure and was basically the only female figure she had in her life. No matter how many times Manda asked about it, Tony would just brush it off, saying that it was ‘adult business.’ Whatever. It would happen eventually.

She slid down off the top of the couch, turning on the TV to watch her favorite cartoon. There was something Manda really, really, really wanted to do, but she had a _strong_ feeling that the first hour was going to be a test about how she’ll handle being home alone. So, she had decided that she would just mind her own business and do her own thing for an hour before doing what she was hoping she could do. How to kill an hour? Well, that was a dumb question, she had so much stuff around the house, too much stuff, she could easily kill an hour, but being excited it was hard to pick one thing and stick with it. She could watch her favorite cartoon’s marathon that was going on for the day, play some video games, play with her toys, or take a nap. Naps were boring, she’s seen every episode so far for Pokemon, and all her games weren’t that appealing at the moment. She already did dialysis…

Manda decided to put in her DVD of _Pokemon: The Movie 2000_ in the living room DVD player, deciding that once the movie was over she would do what she wanted to do. While the movie was going through the previews of now old movies, she went into the kitchen to make some popcorn and grab herself some soda. Every kid had that one movie that they could watch over and over and never get sick of, this movie happened to be Manda’s. No matter how many times she has this playing, Pepper never understood it, in fact, she was surprised that she had both Manda _and_ Tony trying to explain it to her. Not that Tony liked Pokemon that much… as much as he wanted to admit, but he did believe that it was important to take an interest in his daughters interests.

* * *

Manda was hanging upside down off the couch, throwing popcorn up in the air trying to catch it. The movie was getting to the point where Ash and Melody was at a shrine and Melody plays a song on her ocarina. The movie was almost done, but Manda was getting antsy. She’s seen this movie over a thousand times, so she was awaiting the ending to come quickly. Eh… it’s been a little over an hour, so it would be good enough.

She slid off of the couch, making sure the popcorn bowl wouldn’t slid off with her. Manda stretched before making her way downstairs towards the workshop. That was literally the only rule that Tony had given her and she already breaking it.

 _“Miss Stark, I’d advise you to go back upstairs,”_ JARVIS’ voice rang out through the room, “ _or I’ll have to send surveillance footage to your father.”_

“Override code: 060600,” was the only thing that Manda had to say to turn JARVIS from an independent AI to listen to command only. Did Manda feel bad about it? Sure, but she was feeling rebellious. Especially since recently she and her dad have been working on new suits lately.

There was a new suit they made that was highly experimental. Basically it was a mold-to-suit, Tony had thought it would be more convenient to carry around than a bulky suit, but he was still working on how to add the weapons his normal suits could have. So far, no luck. The only weapon that this suit had were repulsor blasts, and since it was still in testing, it was powered by battery and had to constantly be plugged in to charge. Manda couldn’t help it, she _really really really_ wanted to try it out for herself. Of course, she would have to try to keep cover as best as she could, that would be slightly tricky, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

Once she made her way into the workshop, running over to the boots that were plugged into the wall. Once someone stepped into these boots and turned them on it would slowly mold a suit to the person’s body. Just the suit though, there was a helmet but that was separately since they haven’t figured a way to get a helmet to mold with it. Just like the weapon issue, they would figure it out eventually.

She stepped into the metal boots, pressing the button on the heel of the right boot to turn them on to began the molding process. It was a strange feeling, the process was slow, but it gave a warm yet cold sensational feeling at the same time. The suit was creeping up, her legs were covered by the suit, along with her torso and eventually her arms. The suit stopped molding once it covered her neck since, as stated, there was no helmet to be molded yet. It felt weird wearing a suit like this, Manda held up her hand to get a look  at the suit.

This. Was. Awesome!

Getting excited, Manda tried walking over to the table that the helmet was charging at, but the first step she tripped over herself, falling onto the floor. The suit was slightly heavier than she had originally expected, not as heavy as Tony’s suit, but it was a little difficult to walk in. Once she pulled herself up from the floor using the table as support. She grabbed the helmet, putting it over her head.

At first, the helmet was dark with nothing loaded up, but once JARVIS realized that the suit was powered up, he synced himself with it. He was running a quick diagnostics test to make sure that everything was working properly so there wouldn’t be any problems. As excited as Manda was to get this suit going, she knew it wouldn’t be wise to head out anywhere without a proper diagnostics test. In the meantime, Manda started pacing around the workshop to get a feel for the suit, and to make five steps without falling on her face.

“ _Diagnostics complete: suit fully operational,”_ JARVIS’ voice came from the helmet, startling Manda.

“Whoa…” was all Manda could say once everything was booted up on screen. The helmet tracked her eye movement, sending out a virtual crosshair to whatever she was looking at. “That is kickass!”

“ _Route location?”_ JARVIS asked her.

“Hmm… Open the garage, JARVIS. We’re gonna take this out for a spin.”

As the garage was opening up, Manda was trying to practice flying with the suit since she had no idea how to do it. Although, she did have an idea since she was there to record her dad’s progress with the original suit. She started the repulsor blasts, holding them down to her sides at 2%. She raised up into the air, moving towards the wall that was hovering over the garage. Manda was trying to move around it, but out of habit she held out her hands to avoid getting smacked into the wall. That caused the repulsor blasts to raise to 50%, sending her flying backwards across the room, hitting the back wall and landing on a table. Thankfully the suit took most of the blow, but it still did hurt.

Groaning, Manda rolled off of the table and stood up. “Good enough,” she mumbled to herself as she walked over to the garage.

She began to run through the garage, eventually using the repulsor blasts to send her up in the air. It was hard to stay in one spot, Manda was swerving side to side as she flew out of the garage and was now on the outside. She was now outside, hovering in one spot taking in the sights. This was incredible! It was extremely different than just watching it on a live stream when her dad was out and about.

Just for the fun of it, Manda regained herself and flew towards town. It was certainly incredible, the lights were shining brightly, cars were speeding around, people basically looked like ants from the height she was at. It was amazing! Once she looked down again, she saw four or five police cars with their lights on, parked in front of a large bank. A bank robbery? A perfect opportunity. Manda flew down towards the ground, wanting to be a superhero just like her dad. She wanted to help stop the bank robbery and help the police. This was going to be great.   

She landed in front of the bank building, standing up straight. Apparently there were still some workers inside and being held captive from the three bank robbers. The police who were standing outside with their guns drawn took a step back in shock, thinking that Tony Stark had shown up to help them. Manda walked up to the doors of the bank, holding out her hand to push them open, but instead accidently set off the blasts, causing the doors to blow off.

“Whoops…” she mumbled to herself, looking from her hand to the robbers who were inside.

The robbers shoved the captives aside, firing their automatic rifles at Manda. The bullets deflected off of the suit since it was made out of a metal, after all. Manda held up her hand to blast the robbers, however, she was too small to handle the suit properly at this capacity. Once the blast rolled out of the suit, it caused her arm to jerk up hitting the ceiling and sending her flying backwards. She flew outside, a parked car broke her fall. The ceiling had collapsed into itself, causing the robbers to scramble out of the building before it fell on them. Thankfully the hostages had gotten out safely. Manda lifted her head up to see that the police were taking care of the rest and there had been a news team there the entire time.

Uh oh…

As soon as Manda realized that the news was live, Tony’s car had screeched to a stop near the bank. Manda let out a groan, she knew that she was in trouble now. The whole thing must’ve been broadcasted and playing at the bar that her dad and Pepper were at. Everyone had assumed that it was Tony who was in the suit, but they were shocked when they saw him get out of his car, marching over to his daughter who was still laying on the car. This wasn’t going to be good. The news camera was pointed at them as Tony removed the helmet off from Manda’s head.

Tony knew that they were live on the news, so he took the chance to make sure that she would never do something like this again.

“Amanda Stark, you’re grounded!” He said loudly enough for everyone to hear. He just grounded her on live TV.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There were some questions regarding this chapter and I'll happily answer them:
> 
> 1- Manda likes to go through things, she only knows the override code from looking through things she shouldn't. Tony doesn't know that she knows the code or else he wouldn't have let her stay home alone. (well, he does now and will promptly change it)
> 
> 2- Hypothetically, the weapons aren't easy to get to when you have an AI threatening to lock down the workshop/send video recordings to Tony. That would've been the plan if Manda would've tried to go down there, but again, Tony didn't know Manda knew the override code or else this would've have happened. 
> 
> 3- (Just because this has been asked a lot in general) Yes, there was a DNA test done at the hospital before CPS even contacted Tony, or else how would they have known that the kid was actually his? Manda's mother gave up rights willingly due to the fact she knows she has a problem and wants her daughter to have a better life. 
> 
> There was also something else that was brought up that is going to be a huge key point when we get into Iron Man 2, so please be patient with that. If there are anymore questions regarding some things I may/may not have skimmed over while writing this story/chapter, please feel free to ask, as I have tried to plan things out so they could make sense but have yet to bring it to the Fanfic. I do want to say that I have everything planted with a tight knot so they will all connect, if not now, but eventually.   
> :D Have a nice day, everyone.


	36. Letting the Dust Settle

The grounding that Tony gave Manda for stealing the prototype molding suit lasted for about a month. A month without video games, TV, or being down in the workshop was hell for the nine-year-old. She just sat around the house, doing dialysis, playing with her toys, and drawing pictures. It was this one time that Manda wished that her school program would still send her over school work to give her something to do, but it was summer so there was nothing to send over. Instead, Pepper had suggested to buy her some fourth grade workbooks to keep her going, but since that was just volunteered work Manda didn’t want that, she only wanted to do work that would count towards school so she could graduate. Besides, workbooks were too easy for her, if anything she would’ve wanted some high school leveled workbooks, but there was no way Pepper was going to get her those. 

It was a Saturday afternoon when Manda hopped down the stairs individually, making sure she made a loud thud which each one. She wanted to make sure that everyone knew that she was bored from being grounded and wanted to annoy everyone. There was some hushed talking from the kitchen, causing Manda to stop being loud so she could try to hear what was being talked about. There was no way she could hear from the staircase to the kitchen, so she walked down the rest of the staircase like a normal person. She stood in the doorway, trying to understand what Pepper and her dad were even talking about. 

“I think you should call them ASAP,” Pepper told them as both she and Tony were standing around the table looking at the mail in his hands. “Maybe they’ll-”

“I’ll fight it,” Tony said as he threw the letter down on the table. “I’ll make sure that I’ll fight it and I’ll win. She wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.”

“The State would take her, Tony. You already know that.”

“I’ll fight it,” he repeated. 

“You can’t-”

“Who are you fighting?! I wanna watch!” Manda interrupted, walking into the kitchen. The two adults jumped in surprised, they had no idea she was even downstairs or listening in to their conversation. 

“How long have you been there?” Pepper practically demanded.

Manda smirked. “The whole time.” Pepper’s face turned white and Tony didn’t say a word because he knew that she was bullshitting them. “I’m kidding, I just got here. Who are we fighting?” 

“ _ We?  _ There is no  _ we  _ in this, Manda. Remember the reason you got grounded in the first place?” Tony reminded her, a smirk on his own face now knowing that he beat her at her own game. “I got us a new car, how about you and I go down and work on it, huh?”

“A new used car?” 

Tony let out a sigh, a small smile on his face. “Yes. A new used car.”

“Let’s go!” She grabbed onto Tony’s hand, attempting to drag him towards the stairs of the workshop. Tony dug his feet in the floor so he couldn’t move. “Daaad!” She whined, “Let’s goooo!” 

“Actually I’m feelin’ kinda tired.” 

Manda stopped, turning around to face him with her hands on her hips. ‘You can’t just tell me you have a new used car and then say you’re too tired!” Tony let out a fake yawn. “Unfair!”

“Nah.” Manda got behind him, trying to push him towards the workshop, but Tony kept his heels dug into the floor so he couldn’t move at all. “I’m not going now.” 

“I’ll go myself!”

“Jokes on you, I changed all the codes.” 

Manda just stared at him, defeated. Pepper could only chuckle as she picked up the paper that Tony had thrown down a moment ago. 

“You guys have fun,” she told them before walking off. 

“See? Pepper said ‘have fun,’ that means you  _ have  _ to.” 

Tony let out a sigh, a smile on his face. “You’re right, you’re right. Lets go.”

“Yes!” Manda shouted, hopping around her dad. “I’m excited!”

“Oh, really?” Tony said sarcastically as they started walking towards the workshop, “I couldn’t tell.” 


End file.
